Winter Adaptations – Stay and adapt

Grade: Lower Elementary (1)

Time: 45 minutes

Objectives: Students will…

  • Describe the adaptations that squirrels and chipmunks use to survive the winter
  • Give examples of the pros and cons of each animal’s food storage

Materials:

  • Bag of peanuts*, in the shell, unsalted
  • 3-4 walnuts
  • 1 roll of masking tape
  • Photos of squirrels and chipmunks
  • Photo of squirrel foot
  • Vaseline
  • Water in a spray bottle
  • Photo of duck preening

*Be aware of peanut allergies

Introduction

Review what they know about what animals do in the winter (hibernate, migrate, stay). Can they name animals that do each? Today we will be learning about three animals that stay in New Jersey and how they stay alive in winter.

Procedure

1. Squirrel Snack

Show them a picture of a gray squirrel, and ask them if they recognize what animal. Explain that today they will become squirrels. To do that, we must make squirrel hands out of their human hands. Have students hold up their hands. Show them a picture of a squirrel foot. Do squirrels have thumbs? No, so we’ll have to get rid of them. Since they will probably need them later that day, we can’t cut them off. So, we’ll tape them down.

Go around the circle and tape each student’s thumb to the side of the hand. Remind them that as squirrels, they cannot use their thumbs at all.

What do squirrels eat? Nuts, acorns, berries. Today, they will be feasting on peanuts. Give each student one peanut. If any students have peanut allergies, they can help as monitors, watching to make sure no thumbs are being used. How can they open it without using their thumbs? Let them try for a few minutes before asking how squirrels open their nuts (with their mouths). Since they are squirrels, they can use their mouths. After everyone has finished their peanuts, take off the tape.

Pass around the walnuts. Could the students use their teeth to open these? No, they are much too hard. What is special about squirrels that make them able to open walnuts and acorns? They have sharp teeth and strong mouths.

2. Squirrels and Chipmunks

Take students onto the trail.

Squirrels and chipmunks (show them a picture) are very similar. Ask students how they look alike. How do they look different? Squirrels have big fluffy tails , while chipmunks have short thin tails. Squirrels need their full tails to balance as they jump from branch to branch. Chipmunks live in tunnels underground. Would a big bushy tail be helpful to them? No, and it would get very dirty and messy. What do they know about chipmunks? They will probably answer that they put food in their cheeks, so make chipmunk cheeks.

One of the big differences between the two is the way they keep their food in the winter. Gray squirrels stash their food in many different places all through the woods. They go out of their winter nest and find and eat some every day. Chipmunks sleep most of the winter, waking up every two weeks or so to get food from the one spot (in their burrows) where they’ve stashed it. So squirrels = food in many different places, chipmunks = one place.

Divide the group into two groups, squirrels and chipmunks. Give each student three peanuts. Those in the squirrel group must hide theirs in 3 different places, those in the chipmunk group must hide theirs in one place. Define the boundaries and give them 30 seconds to hide their nuts. When everyone has hidden their nuts, bring the group back together. Discuss what the pros and cons of each strategy are.

After several minutes, give the students 30 seconds or so to find their nuts and bring them back. Which group found more of their nuts? What will happen to the nuts that were left behind? If they were real nuts, they would either rot and become part of the soil or grow into new trees.

3. Bird Raincoats

Show the students a photo of a duck, and see if they can identify it. Show them the photo of the duck preening, and ask what it is doing. All birds preen to keep their feathers in good shape. If you have feathers, pass them around and show students how to zip and unzip them. Birds have several types of feathers. Those close to the body (down), act like long underwear and help keep them warm. The ones over those act like a coat by keeping the wind and water out.

Birds that spend time in the water have an extra step. They turn their coats into rain coats by adding a special oil that their body makes. At the bottom of their tail, there is a gland that puts out this oil. The ducks get some in their bill and smooth it over their feathers.

To see how this works, put Vaseline on the back of one hand of each student. Leave the other hand bare. Spray water on both hands and compare what happens.

Conclusion

Review the ways animals that stay here in the winter are adapted to survive.