Fall at the Outdoor Discovery Center

What a fantastic day! The weather was cool and sunny... just perfect for a walk at the Outdoor Discovery Center!

We started our adventure at Founder's Hall.  We spent a short time checking out some living animals such as turtles, an owl, and snakes in aquariums.  We also looked at some really cool taxidermy animals!  And finally, there was a touching table with natural items such as bones, feathers, snake skins and more.  

 

Our guide for the day, Miss Sheila, gathered us up on the floor to talk about the new fall season and the changes in animals and plants from the summertime.  She then showed us two types of live turtles.

The first turtle was a box turtle, who lives on land. He is a reptile, which means he is cold-blooded. His body temperature is the same as the outside temperature. To warm his body, he must find the sun. In the fall, he starts to prepare for winter and hibernating by eating and searching for a good place (on land) to sleep for the winter.

 

Next, Miss Sheila brought out a painted turtle. This turtle is also a reptile, but lives mostly in the water.  He also is cold-blooded like the box turtle. The painted turtle will hibernate as well, but goes into a pond, digs into the mud, and hibernates there all winter.  Miss Sheila told us that the painted turtle needs to breathe air, but while hibernating, he can absorb oxygen from the water through his skin!  Pretty neat trick!

 

Miss Sheila showed us the shell of a turtle. The underside shows the turtle's spine.  She told the kids that the turtle is not able to leave his shell because it is attached to his body! The shell grows with the turtle just like our spine grows with us. She also told us that the shell is made out of the same material as finger and toenails!

 

Finally, Miss Sheila pulled out both turtles for a race!  The first turtle to move off the carpet won.  The best of 5 races was the winner.  Care to guess which turtle won?   It was the BOX turtle!

 Our next adventure was to go out on the paths to explore three different habitats.  Our first habitat was the meadow.  We enjoyed looking at some beautiful flowers, tall grasses, and of course, weeds! Miss Sheila discussed the five needs of animals... food, water, air, shelter, and space to thrive.  She asked what types of animals would use the meadow for their home.  Answers included mice, snakes, birds and maybe larger animals such as rabbits, foxes and deer.

Miss Sheila took a few moments to show us the milkweed plant.  This plant is the only food that monarch caterpillars will eat. It is poisonous to animals, but not the monarch.  When the caterpillar eats the milkweed leaves, the 'poison' makes it (and the butterfly it will later become) taste bad to predators.  In the fall, the pods grow and open up, allowing the seeds to blow into the wind to take root for next spring.  Miss Sheila opened up a pod and gave seeds to the kids to toss into the wind!

 

We were fortunate to see a monarch chrysalis today!

Our next habitat we visited was the pond.  The kids were allowed to lay down on their bellies to feel the water.  Animals that live there are fish, frogs, maybe water snakes, and other animals visit the pond to drink.

Our final habitat was the woods.  We noticed that it looked different, with many trees and plants.  We took a moment to close our eyes and listen for five different sounds.  Animals that might live in the woods include rabbits, squirrels, deer, and birds. 

We talked about two types of trees in the woods.  Deciduous trees are those with leaves that turn color and drop off in the fall. The trees go dormant all winter, but awake with new buds and leaves in the spring.  Conifer trees (also called evergreen) are trees with needles that do not drop off in the winter. The kids were told that they could pull off one needle and EAT it if they chose.  The kids thought they tasted minty!

 

One last stop on our walk back was the bird feeding station.  Unfortunately, we were a bit noisy, so no birds came to visit while we were there.  

We had a fantastic time at the Outdoor Discovery Center today.  Our next visit will be in January, when we will visit the same habitats to see how they have changed from our visit today.  Thank you to Miss Sheila, who was a fantastic teacher.  Thank you to the parents who joined us today, and thank you to our administration team, who makes the trips to the ODC possible for first graders each year!

And now... as always... the FUNNY ONE!