Large rodent with long sharp teeth and a habit of chomping down beautiful trees. Not exactly an attractive picture, but we see this amazing animal for all its other attributes. Beavers are part of our history, they are a symbol of Canada and are an important part of the ecosystem. Beavers are champion sawyers, so we put this awesome skill to practice by felling our own carrot tree. We then got busy as beavers making a beaver dam with natural materials. Chat about how your child built a strong dam and whether it passed the water test. Please DO try this at home!
Mrs. Eastman loves to watch beavers on the pond. She had a neat picture of a beaver to colour and shared a non-fiction story about the life of these industrious creatures. Find out what your child can tell you about the diet, habitat, and behaviour of beavers. Check out the booklet sent home from the library for some fun practice. Can your child find a mistake on one of the pages?
We found out that muskrats are neighbours to beaver on the pond. Your child should be able to tell you some differences and similarities between them. Comparing and contrasting objects or concepts help us organize and remember information. Kids begin to notice subtle differences which can lead to making better decisions. We’ll find out down the road:). Dragonfly even brought two scales to explore the BIGGEST difference between these rodents; SIZE. We decided that our friend Sunflower is about the same weight as a full sized beaver. How big are muskrats?
Muskrat
*long, thin tail like a mouse
*smaller (weigh 2-4 lbs)
*musky smell to mark territory
*eat cattails, plants, fish - omnivore
*small lodges made of plants
*can hold breath underwater for 15 min.
Beaver
*have webbed feet
*wide, flat tail
*larger (30-70 lbs)
*big lodges made of sticks
*eat leaves, woody stems, plants - herbivores
*have orange teeth
See if you can find out where they hang out around the pond, and ask about our ‘close call’ sightings today. We got down close to where beavers were actively making a BIG pile of branches. On this climbing exploration Hummingbird spotted a huge spider. Research project?
Art is so much fun, so we were lucky to have our own Harrington artist Brenda come with a seasonal craft for us. We brought a handmade snowman to brighten your holiday home. Thank you Brenda for collecting bottles, gathering fun materials, and coming out to lead this experience for us!
Wander time is always awesome. Somehow play on the rocks, fishing, creating water crafts and finding deer scat, turned in to a cops & robbers game. Ask some questions to bring out the stories!
Our mapping exploration of Harrington Mill Pond is now complete, but creating the map is a work in progress. Take a look at the early start we had in making a map key in the nature journal. Can your child place these symbols where they belong on the map adding colour to make the map interesting. Finish whatever your child feels confident with, and leave the rest for next week. If your holiday includes travel by car, plane, train or horse buggy…make sure to include a conversation about directions, landmarks, signs, and attractions.
Next week we have some wishes which include Christmas themes. If you have any decorations, please get in touch. We have a few requests to decorate our tree friends. We would add ornaments, popcorn strings, etc., take a photo, and then take them down to send home. We can’t use any tinsel as it is dangerous for the animals. We will miss seeing Dragonfly next week and wish her well until January. We will welcome back to Tamarack for our final fall session fun packed adventure.
See you then Forest Friends:).
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