Week 2: Mammals

Mammals. Are. MARVELOUS!

They have fur, some are secretive, they make cool tracks to discover and follow. There is just SO much to learn about mammals!

The lesson outlines for each day are below. On Monday, be sure to tune into the Facebook Live Video, but all of the other activities are optional. Try them all, try just some, it’s up to you!

HERE’S THE PDF DOWNLOAD FOR ALL OF THE LESSON DETAILS OF THIS WEEK.

Need extra ideas to keep kiddo busy? We’ve got you covered. Check out our Safer and Funner pages for more.

Monday

Get excited about mammals

Mammal mystery #1: Can you ID this mammal? It lives both in wild places and in human towns and cities. The answer is below! Photo by Shelly Prevost, Flickr Creative Commons

  1. Facebook Live Video: Carolyn kicks off the week with a video introducing mammals. Watch it live on our Facebook page at 1pm (the feed will start automatically). After the live lesson we’ll post the link here so you can watch it later.

  2. Sit spot: Return to the sit spot you chose last week or pick a new one. Sit and listen for birds you know, and think about how mammals might move through that place (where would they walk or hide, what would they smell, would they eat anything?) Can you see any mammals?

  3. Be a citizen scientist: Check out the Snapshot Wisconsin project. It’s cool! People put trail cameras all over Wisconsin to capture pictures of animals. Now scientists need people (citizen scientists - YOU!) to help them identify the animals in the pictures. Look at photos and tell scientists which animals are in them on the Zooniverse website.

  4. Scavenger hunt: Go on a walk through your neighborhood and look for mammals. Use your mammal ID sheet to guide your search. Which do you see? Which might be there but hiding? Which mammals are wild and which are associated with humans? Do you count humans on your list? Why or why not? 

  5. Nature journal prompt: Write or draw about your favorite mammal. Where does it live? What does it eat? 

  6. Creative/Art: Make a mask of a mammal that you can wear! It can be one that lives in WI or one that lives somewhere far away. Use art supplies that you have on hand: computer or construction paper, paper plates, and paper bags all work well. You can use string or yarn to tie your mask on, or tape a stick to your mask so that you can hold it in front of your face. Share a picture of your mask with us by emailing it to education@madisonaudubon.org

Tuesday

Mammal Tracks

Mammal mystery #2: Can you figure out who made these tracks? The print is two inches long and it is a front foot. This animal often looks for food near water. Photo by Bob Peterson, Flickr Creative Commons

Mammal mystery #3: Who made these tracks? Which print is the front foot and which is the back? Answer below! Photo by Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, Flickr Creative Commons

  1. Optional screen time: check out the Animal Tracks video lesson that Carolyn made earlier this spring (55 min)

  2. Check out the Urban Canid Project: Scientists in Madison, WI are tracking canids (coyotes and foxes) to see where they’re living. You can find maps of where canids are wandering here. Are there any canids in your neighborhood? If you’re outside of the study area, ask friends and family if they have had any canid encounters. Have you seen a coyote or fox? You can report that sighting to the project!

  3. Scavenger hunt: Look for signs of canids (foxes, coyotes, dogs). You might find tracks, scat, or fur. How do you know if they are wild or pet animals? 

  4. Nature journal prompt: Draw a cat track & a dog track. How are they different? 

  5. Creative/Art: Draw a picture of an outdoor place you know. Pretend it is a picture that a trail camera took of that outdoor place at night. What mammals will you add to the picture?

  6.  Active activity #1 Moving Mammals: Move like some different mammals! If you had to walk on four legs, how would you move? Like a bear? (right arm and right leg move together, left arm and left leg move together) Like a wolf? (right arm and left leg move together, left arm and right leg move together) Like a chipmunk? (arms jump out and legs jumps out, landing behind the arms) Like a rabbit? (legs jump out, landing in front of arms) Which way can you move the fastest?

  7. Active activity #2 Water Tracks: Find a stretch of sidewalk or driveway and bring a bowl of water. Dip your bare feet in and walk across the sidewalk. Take a look at your footprints. Now do the same thing, except run. How are your footprints the same? How are they different? Try moving different ways (hopping, big jumps, tiny steps) and see how the prints change.

    1. If you want to make this more challenging, get a ruler and measure stride length and width. How does this change as you move from walking to running?

    2. If you have another person with you, have them close their eyes while you make tracks, then have them guess how you made the tracks. Take turns making tracks and guessing. Think about this the next time you find animal tracks, and try to figure out how the animal was moving.

Wednesday

Squirrel Day

Mammal mystery #4: This little one isn’t a gray squirrel but IS a member of the squirrel family. They’re found in forested areas but also in gardens or backyards. Answer below! Photo by Mark Moschell, Flickr Creative Commons

  1. Video suggestion: Carolyn will be teaching live today at 1pm on the Madison Audubon Facebook page. It’ll be all about squirrels: identifying them, their behavior, and some fun facts. Check it out!

  2. Scavenger hunt: Find a squirrel in a tree, find a squirrel on the ground, find a squirrel on a human structure.

  3. Be a Citizen Scientist: Check out Project Squirrel and report squirrel sightings from your neighborhood.

  4. Nature Journal Prompt: Find a squirrel in a tree, then use the Urban Tree guide to identify the tree. Draw or write about the tree in your nature journal. 

  5. Game: Hide your nuts! Squirrels bury nuts, like acorns, so that they have summer food to eat during the winter. Sometimes, they forget where they hid their nuts, and sometimes that can lead to a new tree! Test your memory with this game. You can play by yourself, or with a partner! Collect a bunch of objects to hide. Start with 10. These could be toys, pennies, rocks, anything you want. You might not want to hide anything that is too important to lose. If you are playing by yourself, hide all of the objects you have in a room, around your home, or outside. Then do 10 jumping jacks. Next, see if you can remember where you hid all of your objects! If you are playing with a partner, you can test each other or you can each take turns hiding the objects.

Thursday

Small Mammals

Mammal mystery #5: This little critter is not on the Madison Audubon Mammal ID sheet. You’ll have to search the web! It has medium-sized ears and eyes and tail. Its feet are not adapted for digging. Answer below! Photo credit: Sergey Yeliseev

  1. Learn to ID moles, voles, and shrews: Visit the NIH kid’s page to learn more about these cool little critters.  

  2. Optional screen time: Watch Carolyn’s video lesson about dissecting an owl pellet (32 min).

  3. Look for and dissect and owl pellet! Go try to find your own owl pellet. Look under big trees, especially if it is a lone tree in the middle of a field or if there are big splats of white bird poop under the tree. If you find an owl pellet, dissect it. Try to ID which small mammals you find inside. 

  4. Nature journal prompt: Write or draw about your owl pellet dissection or the dissection video. Draw a bone life-size, and then use your magnifying glass to draw it larger-than-life. You can also find images of rodent bones online here.

  5. Scavenger hunt: Take a closer look at the books on your shelf. Which ones have characters that are mammals? Can you tell which real-life mammals the characters are supposed to be, or are they imaginary? 

  6. Creative/Art: Write your own book (picture book or one without pictures) using non-human mammals as the characters. Will you make your mammals talk and do human things (anthropomorphize)? Will you make your mammals behave like the wild animals they represent? 

  7. Owl Ears Game: In this no-running game kids will pretend to be a mouse hiding from a hunting owl. Great for kids in grades K-5, you’ll need a small space to play (at least four feet square) and at least two people. You’ll also need something to use as a blindfold (bandanna, scarf) and a piece of paper. Check out the rules to the game on our Get Moving! page or in the PDF download for this week’s lessons.

Friday

Scat

Mammal Mystery #6: Who pooped this poop? The pellets are about a half-inch in diameter. They’re not completely round, and you can find them in both wild spaces and in parks near towns or cities. Answer below! Photo credit: Bradley Gordon, Flickr Creative Commons

  1. Optional screen time: Watch Carolyn’s video lesson on Mammal scat (31 min).

  2. Scavenger hunt: Go look for poop! See how many different types you can find. Use your Mammal Track & Scat ID sheet to figure out what animal made the poop.

  3. Nature journal prompt: Draw a picture of an animal scat you found OR pick your favorite from the guide to draw. 

  4. Creative/Art: Get silly in the kitchen and try to make something that looks like animal poop! What will you use? Cookie dough? A candy bar? Peanut butter with cocoa powder?

Banner photo: Cottontail rabbits by Laura Wolf (Flickr Creative Commons).

Mammal Mystery Answers: #1: coyote, #2: raccoon track, #3: wolf track (large domestic dog would also make prints like this), #4: chipmunk, #5: vole, #6: white-tailed deer scat.