Although I could tell that some of our campers were about ready to head back to school, (and I am sure the parents are just as ready!) we had a truly wonderful week with a great bunch of kids!
We started our week on Monday with learning our way around the Preserve and talking about classification of animals. Using buttons and aliens, we talked about how scientists classify animals and plants into different groups. The campers did an awesome job of lisiting the characteristics that divide birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fishes and arthropods into their different groups. We also talked about what needs animals have and what happens when there is too much competition by playing a game called Oh Deer.
The day was finished off with an introduction of insects to prepare us for Tuesday's topic. What makes an insect an insect??? Head, thorax, abdomen (abdomen) Head, thorax, abdomen (abdomen). Six legs, Four wings, Antennae two. Head, thorax, abdomen (abdomen) :-) And yes we sang that to the tune of "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes!" Using those criteria, everyone had 2 pictures of a creepy crawly critter that they had to decide if each was an insect or not. We learned organisms like potato bugs, spiders, millipedes, and mites are not insects! Phew! What a busy Monday we had!
Tuesday was quite a wet day to study insects and other little friends, but we tried our best! We went on a bug scavenger hunt trying to fill in our bingo boards. The rain became a little too much for us to handle so we came back inside. We made butterfly wings to wear while we learned about the tough life of a migrating monarch butterfly. After lunch when the rain calmed down we returned outside to find ladybugs to participate in the Lost Ladybug Citizen Science Project (more info can be found at http://www.lostladybug.org/) and collect different species of caterpillars. We set up an overnight experiment with milkweed tussock, monarch and white marked tussock caterpillars. We wanted to see how much they could eat in one night. We found that the milkweed tussock and monarch caterpillars were very hungry. The white marked tussock caterpillar was not eating so we thought it was best to return him back outside. We reset our experiment later in the week with a suggestion from Miss Caryn that she heard that the droppings (called frass) would turn red if you fed the milkweed eating caterpillars a seed pod instead of the leaves. We found out this was true indeed!
Thee camp is called FINS, fur and feathers so it was about time that we got to studying fishes on Wednesday. A little trivia for our readers: did you know that the word fish applies to a group of fish of all the same species, but fishes is the correct term when you have a bunch of species together. What better way to study fishes than to go fishing and so we did! Three campers caught 6 fishes between them, including 2 bluegills, 1 pumpkinseed, 1 rock bass and 1 yellow perch. The campers were given a lesson in identification of the different fishes that were caught, mainly 1 characteristic to look for on each species (ex: rock bass have red eyes). We learned about aging fishes using their scales and reading the rings like the rings of a tree. We pressed the scales between special slides to make impressions on slides and looked at them in a microfiche reader. We also made fish prints and constructed cartesian divers to learn about how a fish uses its swim bladder to float or sink in the water.
Thursday we moved onto birds. We started our morning going on a bird behavior scavenger hunt. We found lots of bird activity if we were quiet and patient. We came back in and made a flying osprey craft in honor of our nesting osprey that we had on the Preserve throughout the summer. In the afternoon we had a wonderful presentation about bats by another Tifft staff member, Lauren. She helped to dispell common myths about bats and talk about some benefits to bats and dangers they face, such as the white nose syndrome. We even got to play an exciting game of fruit bat tag to remind us that while bats can see, they rely more on echolocation to locate objects and food. We finished our day back with birds, learning some bat trivia playing Jeop-Birdy.
Friday we spent the morning fishing again since that is always a camp favorite. The afternoon was dedicated to learning about mammal adaptations on a walk around the Preserve. We had a chance to see and touch some biofacts including a beaver pelt and tail! We spent the rest of our afternoon playing games. We even played a game about skunks. Be careful! Don't get sprayed!
Below are some photos from our week. You may need to click on the box below to begin the slideshow. Have the children tell you what the activities are, or click on the white bubble to read captions of select photos.
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