1/28/2007 7:44 PM Douglas Kindergarten Winter Nature Walk Schedule this walk in February or early March. Winter walks are shorter than spring and fall walks (~ 30 minutes). Materials: Trowel Pruning shears, vase, and packet of sugar * Hand lens and squares of black paper (one set per pair of students) Clipboard with guide, observation sheet, and nature walk report Pencil * provided by program coordinator Objectives: * Observe and share observations of seasonal changes in winter * Discover what happens to plants in winter * Identify buds on wild rose, pussy willow, red-stemmed dogwood, and red maple * Examine and describe different types of snow and ice 1. Observe and share observations of seasonal changes *Record observations on clipboard observation sheet Gather the children together and ask them to try to remember how the schoolyard and marsh looked in the fall. Ask the children to look around and describe how the schoolyard and marsh have changed now that its winter? What about: colors, bird and other animal activity, plants & trees, sun s warmth (air temperature), snow! Ask the children to close their eyes and listen. What do they hear? How are the sounds different? What about smells? Take the trowel and try digging in the ground. Can they dig into the ground? It s frozen
2 2. Discover how winter affects plants Remember how they dug in the ground to find roots in the fall? Plant roots in the frozen soil become dormant in the winter, sleeping under a blanket of snow until it gets warm again. Snow insulates plants and shields them from cold winds. Walk along the marsh to see how the freezing cold temperatures have affected all the plants and other plant parts: What s happened to the leaves and stems? What color are the leaves and stems of wildflowers and how do they feel? Brown or golden, dry and brittle. What will happen when spring comes? (*New plants will grow and replace dead stalks.) Now look at the stems of trees? Tree trunks and branches and those of shrubs aren t dry and brittle like wild flower stems; they sleep through the winter along with the roots. Bare branches make beautiful patterns against the sky. Which tree do they think makes the most interesting pattern? Does anybody see any flowers or green leaves? No flowers, but a few trees are called evergreens because they keep their leaves, known as needles, all year long. (Pine trees do lose a few leaves at a time.) A few plants keep their green leaves all winter long. If there are bare patches, look for green grass or other leaves close to the ground. One more plant part: seeds. Can anybody find any seeds? Try cattails, milkweed pods, and purple loosestrife or other marsh plants. What will some of these seeds become in the spring? What s different in the spring that will allow plants to grow? (More sunlight, warmer temperatures and water that isn t frozen) Show children a wild rose, red-stemmed dogwood, pussy willow or a red maple (all marked with red surveyors tape) and examine the tips of the branches. *Note: Two wild rose bushes and two red-stemmed dogwoods can be found in the marsh. The pussy willow is along the boardwalk and several red maples are near the older kids playground. What do they see? A new plant part: buds! Do all buds look the same on each plant? Are buds different on different plants? Ask children to make predictions about what will happen to buds when warm weather returns? (If it has been a warm winter, the pussy willow buds may even be opening) Let s see! With pruning shears, cut a branch (about a foot long), just above a bud or node from either the wild rose or the pussy willow. See Forcing a Bud activity instructions on page 4 for placing branches in the classroom.
3 3. Examine snow and ice Have the children pick up some snow. Can you make a snowball? How does the snow sound when you walk on it? Is the snow soft so they sink in or is it hard and slippery? Have the children take turns naming words to describe different kinds of snow: e.g., soft, fluffy, wet, sticky, hard, crunchy etc. *Eskimos have 12 different words to describe snow. Have children put some snow on their bare hands. What happens? What makes the snow melt? If they made a snowman today would it still be there when spring came? Ask the children to look all around the playground, the marsh, along the school building and observe where there is snow, where it has melted, and where it has turned to ice. Note places where the snow has melted (along the school building, on the roof, at the base of trees) and help children to see that dark objects absorb the sun s warmth and melt the snow. Also, look for icicles and ask children where icicles come from? *More icicles form on the south, or sun-facing, side of buildings. Have the children place a small amount of snow on black squares of paper If it s snowing, try catching snowflakes on the paper. Look closely at the ice crystals with hand lenses. Have the children share their observations. Wrap-up If the children aren t too cold ask what they discovered on their winter walk and what they enjoyed the most. Ask each child to think about what they will include in their drawing of winter at Douglas School. Some ideas? Snow, ice crystals, icicles, bare branches making patterns against the sky, green evergreen trees, buds
Forcing Buds Activity: Pussy willow & wild rose 4 1. Cut branches on a day when temps are above freezing if the day of the walk is too cold, arrange for a program coordinator to collect branches at another time. 2. With pruning shears, cut a branch about 12 inches long, just above (after) a bud or node. 3. *Once inside, make a fresh cut on the bottom of the stem and split the end of the stem (vertically or along the length) with scissors (about 1 inch), before placing it in a vase of warm, sugary water (1 teaspoon sugar to each vase of ~1/3 gal of water). 4. Place in a cool location out of direct sunlight. Add water as needed. 5. You may see the buds burst in 7-14 days and can then move the branch into more sunlight.
Nature Walk Observation Sheet Date: 5 What we: Saw: Heard: Smelled: Touched: