On Wednesday March 5th, a group of thirteen fourth graders from theUpper Valley Waldorf School, their teacher and three parent chaperones visited the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park toexperience wildlife tracking.
Following an interactive presentation by Ed Sharon, Science Communication Specialist with the North East Temperate Network,students practiced their inferring skills with a tracking indooractivity "Stories in the Snow". In small groups, we then explored and experienced the white landscape on snowshoes looking for clues, askingourselves questions when encountering a complex set of tracks.
We shared our stories by the wood stove in the Artist Studio over a welldeserved lunch. Thanks to two students from the Woodstock Union High School shadowing at the National Park that day, the group was treated with aninformative puppet show on winter survival "Snug in the Snow" (Hands-on Nature environmental activity) with Anna Harrington as Marsha the mouse from Florida and Celia Graham as Marsha the mouse from Vermont.
To conclude the day of exploration and investigation, students were involved in an art project with Mackenzie Harrington from the Student Conservation Association who has greatly contributed to the Park forthe past few months. Using paper, color pencils, and track stamps,students created individual animal habitats with " Stories in the Snow" to share in class. The teacher left theMarsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park that day with ideas for follow-up activities and a group of excited wildlifetrackers. Hopefully Anna, Celia and Mackenzie were as inspired as Iwas after spending the day with these young inquisitive explorers
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March 13, 2014
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Last updated: March 13, 2014