Lesson 4 - Tracks
Assignments: Magic Spot and Journaling
Optional Just for Fun: Make a "Track Trap" and find out what animals visit your home; Learn more tracking tips. Also Track Guide, Tracking Game, Videos to help you learn more!
Embedded Files
Make sure to visit your Magic Spot every month, or as often as you like, even every day. Magic Spots help you notice more things happening around you in nature and help you become a better observer - an important science practice!
Assignment:
Assignment:
Find a magic spot (sit spot) somewhere you can observe nature, and sit quietly in it for at least 10 minutes, noticing what is happening in the natural world around you.
Find a magic spot (sit spot) somewhere you can observe nature, and sit quietly in it for at least 10 minutes, noticing what is happening in the natural world around you.
Remember, "nature" is all around! It's best if you can go outside but even if you can just look out a window and see trees or plants, birds, ants, or clouds, those are all parts of nature that you can use to practice your observation skills.
TIP: Be sure to tell your parents what you are doing so they don't worry about you when you are quiet for 10 minutes!! (Also so they don't disturb you in your sit spot)
Assignment: Record some of your observations & explanations based on evidence in your Nature Journal
Assignment: Record some of your observations & explanations based on evidence in your Nature Journal
(If you don't have a journal, any piece of paper will work - keep it to share with your teacher!)
If you have your Taking Root Journal, you can use that, otherwise, any paper, even a piece of cardboard, will do. Write or draw about something you observe. Be sure to add the date and describe the weather!
Write down some of the animal signs you saw outside, and make a possible explanation from the evidence you saw about what animal it was and what it was doing.
Write down some of the animal signs you saw outside, and make a possible explanation from the evidence you saw about what animal it was and what it was doing.
January Journal Pages.pdf
Look for animal tracks at home!
Look for animal tracks at home!
Make a backyard track "trap" and see who visits
Make a backyard track "trap" and see who visits
What kinds of animals do you think you might find signs (tracks, scat, fur, feathers, etc) of where you live? Make a prediction based on what you think / know about animals in your area.
Now set up a track station and see what you find - if you can draw or take pictures of the tracks, do that. Your journal has rulers on the back to measure them, and a track guide is below to help you identify what animals you discovered!
Did the evidence support your predictions? Were you surprised? Did you learn something about what animals are near your home?
Create a track trap - a little fancy and materials intensive, but a neat idea
You don't need a hula hoop, and you should smooth out the flour - her area wasn't great. It can be a square, too - just needs to be big enough that an animal has to walk across some flour to get to the bait in the middle. Salmon is a bit fancy! Cat food works. Also, this is for a specific purpose (seeing quail predators) vs just seeing what is out there. They use a LOT more flour than I think you need, too!
You could do something like this but with flour and a little smelly food, like cat food, tuna (just the liquid you drain from the can would work great), etc.
Simple Instructions:
Smooth out an area about 3 feet across
You could make mud if it is soft dirt, but if it freezes at night, there may not be tracks
You could use a part of your patio that is flat, and cover it with soft dirt, mud, or flour
Put scented bait in the center of your area - could be a bit of cat food, tuna, etc.
Check it in the morning to see if anyone visited! If not, check again the next day. Smooth out the surface again if needed.
Track Guide
Track Guide
We don't have all of these animals here - check with an adult if you aren't sure.
trackguide2003.pdfClick for Tips about what Animals you might find HERE
Click for Tips about what Animals you might find HERE
Common Animals you might find evidence of near your house, by page number:
Deer, Dog, Coyote, Horse, Domestic Goat
Opossum, Fox, Skunk, Frog, Mouse, Lizard, Duck, Chipmunk or Ground Squirrel (larger), Cow, Sheep
Quail, Rabbit, Raccoon, Raven
Less Common Animals you'd be lucky to see evidence of near your house:
Bear, Bobcat, Mountain Lion, Elk, Badger, Bald Eagle, Beaver
Wild Turkey, River Otter
Muskrat, Sapsucker
Some animals live higher up in the mountains, not down in the Owens Valley:
Bighorn Sheep (though they come pretty far down, like in Silver Canyon or just above Rovanna), Fisher
Gray Squirrel, Marten, Wolverine, Porcupine, Marmot, Aplodontia (Mountain "Beaver")
Sapsucker, Pileated Woodpecker
Animals on the above Track Pages we do NOT have here in the Eastern Sierra:
Caribou, Bison, Lynx, Moose, Grizzly Bear
Gray Wolf, Armadillo
Mountain Goat
Get better at tracking with these videos
Get better at tracking with these videos
Science of Animal Tracks
Science of Animal Tracks
Try this Animal Track Quiz!
Try this Animal Track Quiz!
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