Teaching Outdoors in Winter

Students will learn techniques biologists use to better understand the wildlife found in the refuge. Using wildlife tracks, students will gather and interpret wildlife data through observation and measuring.

Wildlife Walkers (Kindergarten) Curriculum, Journal Page, Leader Guidelines

Students learn and then practice walking the 4 most common wildlife walking patterns. They discover how an animal’s body shape relates to its walking pattern. A trail hike will challenge students to locate and follow animals tracks and learn to recognize other common wildlife signs.

Wolf Ridge: Animal Tracks Video

Gait, Stride, Straddle Defined, shows a Naturalist demonstrating how animals move

Jeffers Foundation ECO Time

Greeting: Whose Track is That?

Activity: Walk This Way (Prints)

News and Announcement: Tracks are Everywhere

Literacy Connection:

The Greatest of Feet (MN DNR Young Naturalist): Story and Teachers Guide

Examples of math specific activities you can do with animal tracks

examples of literacy specific activities you can do with animal tracks

Animal Adaptations for Surviving Winter

Rodent animal tracks going across the snow and disappearing into a hole in the snow

Resources for Teachers

Animals that adapt picture cards

Animals that hibernate picture cards

Step Outside Guide: Getting Ready for Winter (lesson plans and activities)

Curriculum from Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge:

Survivor: Minnesota Winter (K-2nd Grade): Curriculum, Journal Page, Leader Guidelines

Students will explore a variety of techniques Minnesota animals use to cope with harsh winter conditions. Students will participate in an outdoor hike to search for signs of these winter survival techniques.

Migration Matters (4th – 5th Grade) Curriculum, Journal page, A Bird's Solution Data sheet, A Bird's Solution Data sheet with answers, Group Leader Guidelines

Students will learn how and why scientists collect data about individual bird species and bird migration patterns by participating in a bird migration game, a bird banding demonstration, and a bird hike with binoculars.

A tree laying in the snow that has been chewed down by a beaver but is still attached at the base.

Resources for Students

Winter Wildlife Signs Checklist - from Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge

Winter Wildlife Signs Checklist (a variation of the checklist above)

How Minnesota Animals Prepare for Winter - Video featuring Carly, an Interpretive Naturalist at Jay Cooke State Park

Literacy Connection:

Wild Things in Winter (MN DNR Young Naturalist Article): Story, Teachers Guide, Study Questions

Splendid Fliers (MN DNR Young Naturalist Article): Story, Teachers Guide, Study Questions

Jeffers Foundation ECO Time:

Greeting: Honk, Hiss, Ribbit: What’s Migrating? (Activity Cards)

Activity: Migration Racin’ (Activity Cards)

News and Announcements: Animal Migration

Children's books about animal adaptations in winter

Snow & Snowflakes

Snowflake ID card that has a black rectangle for catching the snowflake and 8 common snowflake shapes

Snowflake Study Resources

The following resources are from the snow crystals website

Snowflake ID Chart

Snowflake Type - Formation by Temperature chart

Use black construction paper, felt or winter clothing (mittens, jacket) to catch the snowflakes. View using a magnifying glass.

Use I Notice, I wonder, It Reminds me of Exploration Routine (from Beetles)

A bunny created out of snow with a carrot nose.

Snow Activity Ideas

Andy Goldworthy: Snow and Ice Art

Build a Quinzee - Here's how

Snow Sculpting Tips - How to build with snow

Jeffers Foundation ECO Time

Greeting: Snowflake Match (Activity Cards)

Activity: Snowball Fight

News and Announcement: Snow Poems

A rainbow painted in the snow using spray bottles

Painting Ice/Snow Tips

Use liquid water color paint in spray bottles. Food coloring will stain clothes and hands.

Keep the bottles in a cooler to keep them from freezing. Put a warm glass jar in the cooler to keep it warmer inside.

Water color paint trays or tempera paint cakes/water color discs work well to paint ice.

Children painting the ice with watercolor paints

Colored blocks of ice stacked on top of each other to create a wall

Ice for Building & Exploring

Freeze water in rinsed out milk cartons to create ice bricks
Freeze water in cupcake trays or cookie molds for loose parts play
Freeze objects in ice. Students have to figure out how to get the objects out
Freeze natural materials into the ice shapes to create ice art
Podcast on using ice as loose parts

Plants in Winter

Resources

MN Trees in Winter Key

Tree Shapes in Winter Activity

Three Rivers Park District: Meet a Tree Activity

A teacher and students are checking the Maple Tree sap buckets. The buckets are milk jugs.

Literacy Connection:

How Big is that Tree (Mn DNR Young Naturalist: Story, Teachers Guide, Study Questions

Sugar from Trees (MN DNR Young Naturalist): Story, Teachers Guide

Curriculum from Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge:

Winter Tree Math (2nd-3rd Grade) Curriculum, Journal page, Leader Guidelines

Students will use a variety of methods to measure the size of trees. The activities will help them to understand why scientists have established standardized measuring techniques for data collection. Through a hands-on activity, students will use forestry equipment and techniques used to collect tree data.

Winter Birds

Winter Birds (The Old Naturalist)

Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge Lessons

Birding Basics (3rd-6th Grade)

Curriculum, Journal page , & Group Leader Guidelines

Students will learn about birds and some techniques for bird watching and identification. Students will learn the proper way to use binoculars and will practice their birding skills on a hike at the Refuge.

Video links for Birding Basics:

Birds, Beaks, & Adaptations (2nd-6th Grade)

Curriculum, Journal page, & Group Leader Guidelines

Students will investigate bird adaptations first-hand by rotating through a series of feeding stations. Using a tool that simulates one style of bird beak, they will learn how adaptations connect birds to certain habitats and behaviors. Students will then take binoculars on a hike to observe other bird adaptations.