This winter a group of teachers, adults volunteers and 4th and 5th grade students put together an activity loosely based on the story Mousekin's Frosty Friend by Edna Miller. This week all Crestwood classes will go outside to do the activity, which I've copied below. At the end of the week, I'll post more pictures with answers to the clues and student reactions from the scavenger hunt! Additionally, fourth grade classes will be doing a math activity with measuring distance by strides, so I'll provide more details on that as well.
A little mouse awoke in the woods and was hungry. As the little mouse scampered through the woods to find its stores of food it saw the tracks of other animals and the animals themselves! Read or listen to the facts Mousekin knows about these creatures and where it saw them. Follow its clues to see if you can find and identify the 6 animals. Write down the kind of animal you found and the letter you see on the animal. When you have found all 6 letters unscramble them to find the secret word!
Mousekin awoke in a nest in the tall pine tree. Where is the pine tree in our woods? (in the Robin Plot near the classroom/sharing circle)
It used its keen sense of smell to find the seeds and nuts it had hidden. As it went to unearth its store of food it listened closely with its large ears for predators and for the friendly warning calls of a friend.
Goldfinch Plot - upper loop
Between two big oak trees on the path that cuts through the goldfinch plot, Mousekin saw an animal much like itself: a rodent with a tail as long as its body, a great sense of smell, and a diet of nuts, seeds, and berries. This animal looked like a big chipmunk but without stripes. Think about what grows on oak trees and what animal would eat these as food.
animal ___________________ letter ____
Cardinal Plot - upper loop
Mouse kin wanted to get the stash of seeds it had hidden at the base of a sideways tree. Do you remember what type of tree this is? (Boxelder). It saw an animal lumbering across this tree using the long fingers on its sensitive paws. Mouse kin remembered having seen this animal dip its food in water to clean it! It waited to see if this animal went into a den it had made in rocks or trees or the ground nearby.
animal ___________________ letter ____
Robin Plot - along the main trail
As Mousekin neared the green bench along the main trail it heard the warning call of a friend. Mousekin lay down, frozen in fright, at the thought of a predator nearby! As Mousekin looked up it saw two large eyes peering down from a perch in the red oak tree. Up in the tree there was an odd-looking nest! What could it be made of? (wooden basket). Mousekin would not have known this silent flying hunter was watching if it hadn't been for the call of his friend.
animal ___________________ letter ____
Chickadee Plot
Mousekin scurried down the trail, past the classroom circle, and around the Chickadee loop. Mousekin was looking for the black-capped, feathered friend. This creative is active during the winter days looking for seeds, insects, and fruits to eat. One of the calls it makes sounds just like its name! Mouse kin spotted this bird in a tree that is losing a lot of bark. This tree is shaped like the letter Y.
animal ___________________ letter ____
Nuthatch Plot
As it continued to look for food it had hidden, Mousekin ran down the Nuthatch loop trail. Although there were not many trees, there were stands of dried plants and piles of branches. These were good for finding seeds to eat and places to hide. Again the friend's warning call sounded. Another predator was nearby! An animal with red fur and a long, bushy tail was hidden in a brush pile between the path and the field, on the eastern edge of the loop. This animal is known for being sneaky and clever.
animal ___________________ letter ____
Blue Jay Plot
Mousekin remembered hiding food under a fallen log in the Blue Jay plot. It looked like an animal had hopped from under the shelter of the fallen log to a red twig dogwood tree that Crestwood kids had planted. There Mousekin sw a long-eared, short, bushy-tailed creature eating the bark off a stand of bare twigs. Food is scarce int eh winter of for these creatures that eat mostly plants. Mousekin did not know if the animal was a doe or buck but was sure that it was not a deer.
animal ___________________ letter ____
Before retuning to the nest in the pine Mousekin wanted to gather one last cache of food. At the top of the main trail, Mousekin again stopped in fear. There was a creative it had never seen before - a giant made of snow and wearing a red cap! Mouse kin slowly realized this creature was not a threat and went to investigate. There were a lot of seeds, nuts and other treats for the woodland animals to eat!
What creature did he find? Who left the food for the animals?
Leave some seeds and nuts for the animals in our woods- by the snowman or in your plot. Come back in a day or two and se if they have ben eaten. Look for tracks and other evidence of animals.
Meanwhile, take a good look at the photo above. A snowman amongst a few evergreen trees looks simple enough, but it was no small feat to put together. This afternoon a few of us volunteers spent almost two hours shoveling powdery snow into a large plastic tub, mixing it with water to make it slushy enough to stick together, and packing it around a couple of buckets we found in the shed and stacked up to form a sort of structure for the snowman. The snowman's head is a towel we got wet and wadded up before sticking more snow to it. It was quite the creative effort, let me tell you.
Oh, and those trees? Those are Christmas trees Margie "rescued" from the curb for this project and tied to the fence.