Pass the Energy Please...

The source of energy for all living things is the sun. We might use the sun to grow or feed on something that uses this energy in order to stay alive. Our world is a very complex food web with energy being the currency of life. Check in with your child for understanding about some simple food chains that might live right here. How might they connect with other living things to make a bigger food web?

Everyone found a picture of a living thing to hang around their neck. What was your child? See if they remember who they joined hands with to make a simple food chain. To show this clearly we passed yarn from plant to herbivore, omnivore, to apex carnivore, passing energy up the food chain and back to the sun, then off again connecting with another food chain. What happened when we sprayed the dandelion and she died? Loss of species affects everything else. Our web needed everyone. 

Games like Bat and Moth show how prey and predator use strategies to find or avoid each other. What do bats use to find prey in the dark?

We had a wide area to wander around Crayfish Creek with lots of choices for activities. It’s so neat to see the kids flow where their interests take them towards new partners or creative ventures. The adults really try to stay out of their way, as they seem to need little direction. Bunny announced that her middle name is 'Careful', not needing an adult warning as she worked with Cardinal designing a home for needy snails. Acorn decided to move onto the crop field with Chickadee because, “I didn’t get enough ‘hits’ on my water walking adventures”. Rose loves racing the ducks and finding ways to pluck them out with sticks without getting soaked, while Turtle was happy to whittle a twig into a sharp point. No one was ready to leave this wild spot for lunch. Crayfish were caught, dead minnows and ghost moth found, and no ducks were lost downstream. 

Our brainstorm list shows just how many different living things we have connected with this year…and there are many more!

Food webs are complicated and to put all pieces together we played a survival game. Remember your t-shirt colour? What did it tell you about where your energy would come from. See if can recall being a plant, herbivore, omnivore, or carnivore. To survive, you needed to get some energy. Where did your energy come from?

All living things need water to survive. The consumers and producers needed to find the water stations. When they found a station, they needed to take a sip of water and take one coloured popsicle stick. Did you find all three stations?

How did it feel being hunted? What were your survival strategies? What happened to the 'coyote' in the game? Besides being hunted, what are some other ways animals might die in the wild? (poison, loss of habitat)

Journal time today helped us reflect on the connections of producers and consumers in local ecosystems. Saplings drew their own food web while seedlings focused more on simple food chains. How would decomposers fit into a food web or food chain?

Today they took home a little keepsake made last week with our guide Junco (Linda). Please put this memento in a special spot in the house or outdoors. We hope it will hold special memories of our shared adventures at Coyote Nature School.

Moments we want to share...

As our year draws to a close, we hope your child brings home feelings of accomplishment and belonging. They have all made great friends, new and old, cemented by persevering through winter cold, wet feet, and long hikes together. See you in the joyful month of June friends:).