Go on a Raccoon Hunt

One evening after dinner, my two and a half year-old niece (nickname Doodah) said to her parents, "Let's go on a raccoon  hunt!" My sister and brother-in-law allowed Doodah to guide them. Without any direction from her parents, Doodah led them up the hill to the park near their apartment in San Francisco. As they approached the park, Doodah informed them they would see raccoons in a particular area of the park. She led them directly there and sure enough, a family of five raccoons was digging around for food.

My sister isn't sure what prompted Doodah to suggest going on a raccoon hunt. They had been watching raccoons walk along the fence-line outside their window.  Around this time, one of Doodah's favorite books to read was We're Going on  Lion Hunt by Margery Cuyler. My sister thinks Doodah may have combined her real life experiences with the imaginary story to create her own kind of hunt.

When they visited us in October, Doodah told me about their raccoon hunts. I later interviewed her via Skype to see if there's anything she would want me to share with my blog readers. She told me they "go out in the night after dinner" but they didn't need to take a flashlight because it's bright enough in the city. When I asked her why she likes going on raccoon hunts she said, "Because they're fun!"

During our interview, Doodah and her mom also told me about the family of five raccoons they watched sneak in their neighbor's window. One stayed out on the fire escape while the other 4 went inside. Doodah told me, "We could hear them talking." (My sister clarified it was like chattering to each other). Doodah also told me "they were eating the food. Cat food." This is a detail they can't verify, but they know the neighbors have a cat so they inferred that the raccoons were eating from the cat's dish.

I just love this investigation driven by my niece's interests. I love that my sister agreed and impulsively went out after dinner. For kids who live in the city, finding a connection to nature can be a challenge, but as this demonstrates, it's not impossible. In fact, the next time Doodah lead a raccoon hunt, she brought her younger cousin- my 2 year old niece who lives in another part of San Francisco. They didn't see any raccoons that night, but my youngest niece ran all around the park enjoying the darkness. City kids don't experience nighttime the way suburban or rural kids do because of all the lights.

For those of you who live in cold areas, raccoon activity has dropped off significantly lately as they enter deep sleep for long periods (though they don't truly hibernate). When the weather is milder, however, they will still venture out in search of food. So cold-weather dwellers, wait for a warmer evening and see if you can find raccoons. Those of you who live in milder places such as San Francisco can continue to watch raccoons all year round. In fact, this time of year might be a good time for little ones since it gets dark earlier in the evening.

After you go on your raccoon hunt, you can read Raccoons by J. Angelique Johnson.

School connections: Children in grade K or 1 often study nocturnal animals, so this may dovetail with lessons happening in your child's classroom. Upper elementary students tend to study animal adaptations and traits that offspring inherit from their parents (genetics) so older children may wish to do more involved observations focused those details.

Have you seen raccoons in your area? Or are there other nocturnal animals you might search for after dinner?

Related Posts:
Top 10 Ways to Promote Science Inquiry

Go Mushroom Hunting With Your Kids

Question Quilts and Mystery Items

Last Friday I blogged about finding objects in nature to observe with your children or students. A question quilt offers a new way for kids to engage with the objects. (Note: I learned this strategy years ago at a teacher workshop. I thought science teacher Allan Harris had taught me but he has since told me it wasn't him. I cannot remember the teacher who created it. If it was you, please tell me so I can credit you!)

Materials needed:
Large piece of poster sized paper
colorful assortment of square sticky notes (3" x3")
nature object
pencils

Procedure: 

1. Display the natural object you or the children collected. 
2. Ask students to write their questions on sticky notes and arrange them on the poster paper in a pattern (Like a quilt. Get it? A "Question Quilt!" This part is really just for fun- creating a quilt pattern helps keep some kids engaged in the process). Only one question per paper. In my classroom, I asked my students to initial their questions so I could monitor their engagement and understanding. The quality of questions will deepen over time. The depth and detail of questions helps you understand what they understand. ("What is it?" is not a deep science kind of question). 
3. If any students think they know the answers to classmate's questions, they can answer them under the appropriate sticky note. The challenge is for kids to answer their classmates without giving away so much information that the investigating stops. (For example, I often display a mystery item- that is, an item they can't readily identify. Students are not allowed to write the name of the item even if they know it. Rather, the challenge is to make suggestions that help their classmates come to the answer, too). 
4. Once the item has been out for a while (a couple of days or so) I place some appropriate resources nearby and encourage them to start looking for information. Usually, by this time, they can't wait to learn more about it. Those books fly off the table as kids race to identify the objects and learn more about them. Some tell me they're going to sneak and ask their parents for information or "Google it" at home. My response...Go for it! That's not cheating. Scientists share information with each other. See what you can learn." (I do tell them no book/internet research for at least a couple of days. I want them to engage with the object first, before they see what others have to say about it.
5. Since I usually placed an item out on a Monday, by Friday we'd debrief their learning and identify the object. I often tied the objects to what we were learning in class (e.g. A trilobite fossil during a rocks and minerals unit) but other times they were random items that just turned up. If they kids were interested in them, we might dig deeper, but often we'd do a week of questioning and investigating and move on.

So, in the case of the wasp nest I shared last week, I would put it on the table on Monday and let them start asking questions. Some students might call it a bee nest, a wasp nest, or a hornet nest the first day. I'd let them keep asking questions and begin investigating. Perhaps on Wednesday, I'd place books about bees, wasps, and hornets on the science table. That's it. Just place them there and the kids would dig in. By Friday, we would have identified the insect that built the nest and learned some facts.To wrap up, we'd review the questions on the quilt to be sure all of them were answered.

One final note: I use this exact strategy in the graduate science course I teach. The adults get into it just as much as the kids.

Do you have any unique strategies you use to investigate natural objects? Will you try this one? Please share.


Related posts:
Paper Wasp Nest
Top 10 Ways to Promote Science Inquiry
Nature Observations With Young Children

Time to Smell the Roses

Yesterday, I went out for a brisk hike after working at my computer for too long. Sometimes I get rolling and it's hard to pull myself away, but I'm always glad when I do.

Some days, I do more sauntering than hiking as I meander along looking for mushrooms, or birds, or animal holes. Yesterday, I just needed to move, so I set out intent on a quick, heart-pumping hike. My only problem... even when I'm moving along, intent on physical activity, I can't help noticing interesting things along the way. And then I stop to examine them more closely.

As I started down the trail, I noticed an area on the ground that had a strange, amorphous black hue. I considered stopping to look but reminded myself of my goal for this hike and kept moving. Then I saw another patch. And another. I HAD to stop. What is that? I'd never seen it before.

I crouched down, looked closely, and found thousands upon thousands of tiny insects bunched together, hopping around. Normally, I would have spent more time investigating, but I did have an agenda after all, so I took a few photos and hiked on. (Yes.. I did bring my camera...you never know when you'll see some thing interesting!)

As I hiked, I remembered I have seen these insects before. The difference... I've only seen them in the snow. Each winter for the past couple of years I've seen those same black patches on the surface of the snow. Have they always been on the leaf litter and I missed them? Do they normally appear only in the winter? (We did have snow last weekend- perhaps they appeared early because of it). What kind of insects are they? I have a vague memory of identifying them as something called snow fleas one year.

These questions present opportunities for me to do more investigating. Will I do a bunch of research? I'm not sure. It depends upon whether I see them again. I've written about this here before- I tend to learn all I can by observation rather than book/internet research. Then I see what the experts say. If my kids had been with me, I would have followed their lead. I still may do that if we see them together on our next hike.

Do you know your environment well enough to notice such a small detail? I don't spend a load of time hiking those trails- not nearly enough, actually. For all my talk of "get out in nature," I struggle to do that often enough, just like anyone in our over-connected, harried world. But I'm out there at least a couple of times a month, maybe four. And over time, I've learned to notice natural features.

You can teach yourself and your kids to notice natural details. Start with those that are part of your everyday life. You've heard the old cliche, "Stop and smell the roses." Consciously look around as you walk. Bend down to look at a patch of lichen up close. Examine the plants growing through the cracks in the sidewalk. Really watch how the pigeons walk and fly. Share your observations with your kids. Soon they'll be telling you more and more natural things they see.

Then, when you can, find a piece of nature you can explore with your kids. Visit it regularly and notice how it changes over time. Initially, you may notice seasonal changes, but if you do it long enough, you'll begin to notice the changes that happen more slowly, like a meadow slowly turning into a pine forest or a beach eroding over time, or a pine forest becoming a hardwood forest.

I tend to notice little things on the ground- be it tiny insects on the forest floor or minute seashells on the beach that look like grains of sand. That's my own personal interests showing up. But maybe you're kids will be into birds, or wildflowers, or marine mammals. Find what interests them (and you) and go looking for it.

When you do, please come back and share your discoveries with us.

Related Posts:
Nature Observations with Young Children
Seasons and Cycles
Fall Haiku
Mystery Caterpillar

Birds of Prey

Last July, my family spent a week on Mount Desert Island. The cottage we rented was a short walk from Seal Cove. We explored the cove on our first morning there.

Taken from my journal:
"We noticed some kind of raptor/bird of prey roosting in a dead tree. Because of it's proximity to an estuary and the fact that it was in a dead tree, we initially thought it was a juvenile osprey. It was backlit by the early morning sun so we couldn't discern it's coloration. We first noticed it by it's quick, high calls, 'eeww...eeww...eeww.' A resident asked if we knew what it was. When I suggested an osprey, she said it wasn't that and suggested it might be a red-tailed hawk. That didn't seem right because red-tails make a high-pitched noise like 'SCREEEeee' with the pitch falling as it calls. We went back to the books, literally."

The primary book we consulted was Raptor! A Kids Guide to Bird's of Prey.  by Christyna M. Laubach, Rene Laubach , and Charles W. G. Smith. This is a terrific book for the young naturalists in your home or classroom.

 My family and I spent the entire week observing these birds and trying to identify them. We used our powers of observation.

 Here are some things we learned:

1. On day one we saw one bird. We thought it was learning to fly and noted that it flew from the dead tree to the same area in the woods behind the tree. We could hear other birds in that area and wondered if they were other young birds.
2. Over time, as they each apparently learned to fly, we realized there were 4 fledglings. We later saw what we thought was a parent because it was larger.
3. Initially, they flew from the dead tree to the area that seemed to hide their nest, and back to the dead tree.
4. By day 2, all 4 were out flying. They were flying all around, landing in various trees, and even soaring occasionally. All the while they made a terrific racket. "Ewwww...Ewwww...Ewww!"

After about 24 hours, we thought maybe they were Northern Harriers or maybe Merlins. From the book we learned that Northern Harriers have a white rump so we set about to see if we could see a white rump.

We talked to the locals (As you know I am prone to do!) They told us the parents had appeared in April and no-one knew what they were. One neighbor told us they're not usually there and lots of the neighbors were puzzled. She had visited the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Bird Guide and thought maybe they were Merlins. Merlins are very small hawks, so we weren't sure that was right either. Our main problem was that we were observing juveniles. Their size and coloration can be very different from adults.


When we were in Acadia National Park, we talked to a ranger to see if she might help us. Without photos to share, though, we had limited luck. The mystery continued.

We watched those birds every day. My kids would come running to tell me to get my camera out when they were passing overhead. Indeed, I ultimately got a few pretty good shots. Here's a sampling (click to make them larger):

Ultimately, we left without identifying them. Honestly, though, we had the most fun observing them and photographing them. Identification would have been nice, but we wouldn't have learned any more about these birds by reading books than by watching them ourselves.  After all, how do you think scientists learn what they learn?

As I've written before, naming a species is often less important than making your own observations. Many people stop paying attention when they learn the name of something and even stop learning about it. Or, they immediately refer to books, thereby turning over their learning to the "expert" who wrote the book. I encourage you and your children to practice becoming experts on the animals and plants in your own backyard, neighborhood, or rooftop. I'm a writer and educator, after all, so of course I encourage you to read books, but watch closely to see what you can learn on your own first.

So, what kind of birds are they? That's my question for you today. Does anyone know? 

Nature Observations With Young Children

Last week we found a dead bumblebee in our screened porch. Being the nature girl I am, I prevented my husband from sweeping it out. I wanted to handle it and get a closer look. I'm always watching those big, fat insects as they lumber by. I remember my dad, who studied as an aeronautical engineer, telling me that bumblebees should not be able to fly- their bodies are too fat and their wings too small. Yet, somehow they do! I figured the dead one offered me a chance to see their body parts up close in way I am unable to do when they are flying. I left the bee on the table in the porch.

When my husband and I came home from being out a few days later, my daughter (age 5 1/2) ran up to me to tell me she had drawn the bumblebee. She couldn't wait to show me her work. She told me my mother had helped her spell some of the words.

Here's what she did:

(Please note that I do not present this as an example of what all 5 1/2 year olds should be able to do. Quite the opposite, in fact. Developmentally approprate work varies WIDELY. In other words, your child's writing and drawings may seem less or more developed than my daughter's. That's perfectly normal. Take your child/students from where they are).


I let her tell me all about her work. She told me about her drawing and read me her labels. She also read the sentence she wrote on the lines below the drawing, "We found a dead bee." Then we had a conversation about her work.

My first question was, "How many wings does it have?" She looked at the insect, said "4," then grabbed a pencil to alter her drawing that only showed 2 (She added the lines that divide the triangular shaped wings).

Next I said, "I see you put two eyes right here in the front where the eyes are on the bee. I can see them on here (I pointed to them on the bee). My son (Age 9) who was nearby listening said, "Can I see?" We all looked closely at the two black eyes on it's head.

To my surprise, she didn't draw a smiley face on the bee, which is very common with young children. They add human-like characteristics to the animals they observe. I'm not certain she had really seen the two eyes- she may have simply drawn them on as children her age tend to do. That's why I drew her attention to them as if I were noticing them because of her drawing. If I were here teacher, rather than her parent, I would have probed deeper to dig into her understanding. In this case, I didn't want a fun exchange with my daughter to become too teacher-like.

Finally, I asked, "How many legs does it have? She quickly said, "6." I asked if she wanted to add two more legs to her drawing. She said, "no" because she would have to erase all of the legs and start again to make it look right. I let it go at this point. If I were her teacher, I would have gently encouraged her to make corrections so the other scientists in our classroom would have the correct information. As her mom, I let it go but made a mental note to count the number of legs on other insects we examine together this summer.

I share this story as an example of a way that you might help the kids in your life pay closer attention to nature. You don't need any specialized training to ask children this kind of probing questions. You don't need to know all the answers. You can learn with your children/students. You could  count the wings and legs and observe the eyes together. This approach works with all kinds of natural items- insects, birds, mammals, trees/ plants, even rocks and fossils. Simply look closely and talk or write about what you observe. Count, measure, compare, and describe in detail.

Once you have some direct experiences, then you might consult a field guide or other children's book. In fact, I recommend The Bumblebee Queen April Pulley Sayre if you find yourself exploring bumble bees.

Warning: Once you start noticing details in nature with your children or students, they will notice and share details all the time. My kids share something with me at least once a day. Sometimes this will happen when you're occupied with other responsibilities, like maybe cooking dinner or using the bathroom. Or perhaps you'll be teaching a math lesson and your students will interrupt you to describe the ant trucking through your classroom or the birds outside your window. Prepare yourself for these instances. How will you handle them? Obviously, scolding children and directing them to get back to their Math assignments is counterproductive to encourging future observations. So what will you do? 

Please share your suggestions.  How will you handle these kinds of interruptions?

Signs of Spring- Bird Sightings

Birds have been active in my neck of the woods. This morning, my daughter heard this one before she saw it. She rushed inside to mimic it's call to me. We watched it for as long as we could before we had to leave for school.

We put our hummingbird feeder out this week. Within one hour we had our first visitor.

Even as I'm writing this in my screened in porch, the number of birds in my yard is astounding...

I literally just stopped typing to snap these photos from within my porch. (The photo quality isn't great because I shot them through a screen, but they help make my point.)

 And then there are these impressive birds that have been hovering over my yard for the past few weeks. Anyone know what they are? Leave your guesses in the comments.

ADDED May 10, 2010

I can now say with confidence that the first bird is a Turkey Vulture and the second one is an Osprey.

Also, while browsing in my favorite, local Indie bookstore, Baker Books, I found this book the other day:

It would be a fantastic addition to a study of birds of prey. Large "gatefolds" (pages that fold out) help readers comprehend the size of the birds wingspans.
END added material.

Birds are everywhere. Regardless of whether you live in a rural, urban, or suburban area, you can enjoy birdwatching with your children and students. Learning their names may appeal to some children but learning about nature does not require labeling the species you see. Some even argue that labeling stops the learning- once you know the name of a bird, you can look it up and learn facts from another source. If you don't know the name, you tend to focus on making your own observations and end up with a more intimate knowledge of the animal.

If bird watching appeals to you and your students I highly recommend Inquiry at the Window:

 You can also read my post on Hummingbirds from last year.

Have you been noticing lots of birds in your area? What have you been seeing? Please be sure to tell us your general geographical area.

Reading the Land

My family spends lots of time in the woods behind our house. We know the place where the trail splits and we often find coyote skat (poop). We know where the pioneer white pine forest transitions to a hardwood forest. We know the exact place where we relaxed on our backs in the snow and watched a Bald Eagle fly overhead. We know the little hole that is home to a chipmunk. We know our woods.

Yet, each time we go out there, we learn something new.

Maybe we notice a new fungus growing on a log.

Or the rainbow created by the fading sunlight as it hits the vernal pool.

Ot the dappled sunlight as it falls upon a princess pine.

Recently, my son stopped to point out this tree.

"Mommy. It looks like this tree started to split and then it grew back together again."
"Oh yeah. I've never noticed that before. I wonder why we never noticed it."
"Maybe because that branch was in the way." (He pointed to a branch that used to be in front of the "crack" but fell off. In the photo- on the ground to the left).

"When do you think that branch fell?" I asked.
"A while ago."
"How do you know?"
"There's mushrooms growing on it."

We've passed this tree probably hundreds, certainly many times since the branch fell, but we never noticed this detail. In that moment, I realized we had never touched it, either. As we touched the bark we were surprised to learn how rough it is. From a distance is looks smooth.

My son moved closer and further away examining the bark and then touched it again. "Yeah. It looks so smooth but it's really rough."

No matter how well you think you know a place, there is always more to learn. Close observation reveals the details.

Spend time getting to know where you live. City dwellers, this can be as simple as getting to know the tree growing up through the sidewalk outside your apartment. What shape are it's leaves? Does it bear fruit? What kind? What animals are living on it/around it? (Remember that insects are animals). Does your tree look healthy? Feel it's bark. Maybe even make a bark rubbing. How does your tree change over the seasons? Visit it regularly to find out.

Have you observed nature lately? What did you see? Did you learn something new? I invite you to share.

Even More Snow Fun!

Well, more snow is predicted here in the Northeast and over much of the country. Here's a quick and easy investigation you can do with your kids/students while it's snowing.

Materials Needed:

• Magnifying glass (hand lens)
• large piece of dark paper (e.g. black or dark blue construction paper)
• something to support the paper (e.g. a cookie sheet, large book, or clipboard)

Optional Materials:

• Blank white paper and pencils or colored pencils
• cotton dish towel, a bathroom terrycloth towel, a scrap of old fabric, or other material or papers
• small paintbrush (for moving flakes around gently)

 Procedure:

1. Take the construction paper outside. Let some snowflakes fall on the paper.
2. Ideally, take the paper into a cold garage, covered porch, or other place out of the snow (you can even get into a cold car). If you don't have a covered place, lean over the paper to prevent more flakes from falling on it.
3. Use the hand lens to examine the flakes. Big fluffy flakes are the easiest to see, but children should still be able to note differences in the flakes. Challenge children to draw the crystal patterns they see.
4. You could also try out different materials to catch the snowflakes. Try using a cotton dish towel, a bathroom terrycloth towel or a scrap of old fabric. Which material catches and holds the flakes the best? Which makes observations easier?

(Teacher note: This lesson addresses Massachusetts, grades 3-5, Earth and Space Science standard # 7.   If students are able to clearly see the crystals, it also addresses Math standards about symmetry. Certainly, a follow-up math lesson could include making paper snowflakes that have 1, 2, 3, or more lines of symmetry. Students could use a different colored marker or pencil to trace different lines of symmetry).

For a literature connection, try this book:

For some stunning recent photographs of snowflakes, try this book:



For those of you in the snow band, try it out, won't you? And let us know what you discover!

Fall Haiku

Last fall, I facilitated a seashell investigation in my son's third grade class. Following the investigation, the students wrote Lunes about their shells. With the experience of writing lunes under their belts, they moved on a more complex form of poetry-haiku. Here are samples of their work. (These students chose to have their work published).

The Blowing Leaves

Sliding down the slide

Blowing around the sky

In the fall season

by Julia

In the fall leaves fall down

The leaves flying on the air

In the air they fall.

by Danny

Trapped Leaf

On a windowsill,

Trapped in and old frozen pond,

When fall comes around.

by Cecelia

Leaves on the cold ground

leaves are different colors

In the midnight sky.

by Ella

Floating Leaves

In a tall tall tree

Floating in the blue blue sky

Under the hot sun.

by Hannah

Autumn winds shifting,

Leaves are dancing to the ground

Falling from the trees.

by Beatrice

Running Leaf

On the forest floor

Running from the blowing wind

When I go to play.

by Haley

Swimming in the pond

during a windy autumn

Floating in the air.

by Mason

Leaves get raked in piles.
I see this going on for 

miles and miles and piles.

by Dante

Mister Leaf on a
tree, come down and dance with me
near the radio.
by Jameson

Jumping Leaf
On the grass skipping
Blowing over a black fence
in a blowing breeze.
by Robert

If you try your hand at haiku, why not share it here? I hope you'll also leave a comment for these talented poets.