Teaching elementary-aged children is a rewarding experience, but as educators and parents, finding the time and resources to create engaging lessons can be a challenge. That's where this podcast comes in. Welcome to Naturally Teaching Elementary.

I'm Victoria Zablocki, a certified elementary teacher turned outdoor educator. With over a decade of experience coaching teachers on effective teaching methods, I'm passionate about teaching the whole child with authentic and place-based experiences in school and home settings. Join me as we explore our strategies for teaching with practical teaching tips, insightful interviews, picture book reviews, and more. So let's grow together.

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Naturally Teaching Elementary Podcast. My name is Victoria Zablocki and I'm your host. So if you listened to last week's episode, “Episode 57: Winter Animals and Hibernation: First and Fourth Grade Next Generation Science Standard Activities”, you heard a couple of ideas for taking first and fourth graders outside to look for evidence of animals that are awake versus those that are asleep.

This week, we'll continue the theme of animals in winter, but more specifically, we'll focus on winter animals and the relationship with water in connection to second and fifth grade Next Generation Science Standards.

So second and fifth grade standards have water properties in common, and luckily, states of matter plays a big role in animal winter survival. So in this episode, I'm going to describe winter animal activities for grades second and fifth. For each activity, I'll share the Next Generation Science Standard that inspired that activity, as well as the scientific phenomenon that the activity helps explain.

And make sure that you listen through to the end of the episode, because even though I've paired these activities to particular standards, you may find yourself inspired to use a similar concept for your curriculum, or even use the same activity for a different grade. Also, if you're new to taking your students outside for learning, check out “Episode 6: 5 Outdoor Education Safety Tips for Teaching Outside”, for suggestions to make teaching outside easier. Now, let's get into these winter animals activities.

[2:00]

So for second grade, the Next Generation Science Standard that I pulled was 2-ESS2-3: Obtain information to identify where water is found on earth, and that it can be solid or liquid. So for the activity for second grade, I would suggest doing an experiment with water and freezing temperatures to determine how important liquid water actually is to animals in your area. To do this experiment, select a classroom window that doesn't have a water source near it.

Then fill a shallow container with liquid water from inside and place it outside the classroom window. With your students, watch the container for about 10 minutes at least 2 times on the day that you put it out, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. While you're watching, look for animals that visit the water to get a drink.

Record what animals you and your students see visiting the water. It may take some time for the animals to find the water, which is why it's helpful to watch at least twice before it freezes or maybe over the course of a couple of different days, making sure that the water is liquid. It may be worth walking outside after your second observation and taking note of any animal signs that you see around the container, including tracks, scat, feathers, etc.

And if you're in a region with freezing temps, the water will likely be frozen by the second day. So if you want to do an additional observation with liquid water, you'd want to swap it out. And if you're ready to move on to frozen water and seeing the impact of frozen water versus the liquid water, make sure to leave it in the frozen state for your next observation.

So you'll want to make sure to observe the frozen water twice similarly to the liquid water. Record what animals you and your student see visiting the frozen water. And again, you could walk outside and take note of any of the signs of the animals that you see around the dish.

But as a scientific side note, it'll be hard for your students to tell if the signs they find are from when the water was liquid versus frozen. But it's okay for your budding scientists to consider any tracks as part of the population that visited the frozen water and disregard the liquid water. They probably won't even think about it.

After you've watched and recorded animals from both the liquid water and frozen water visitors, sit down with your second graders and talk about their results. First, work together to decide what defines “more” in this experiment. Is it more individuals or more variety of animal species?

Once you've worked together to make this definition, take a look at your class's results. Did more animals visit the liquid water or the frozen water? Why do they think that is? Are animals meeting their needs in a world of frozen water? How are they doing in? Do they prefer liquid?

Do they prefer frozen? This will get your students thinking about how much water is frozen during different seasons and how that it can affect animal survival. It could also potentially inspire great conversations about different winter animal adaptations, such as hibernation and migration, and the role of water in those adaptations.

[4:59]

The Next Generation Science Standard that I pulled for fifth grade is 5-ESS2-1: Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and or atmosphere interact. For the activity for fifth grade, I would suggest doing a multi-day observational study.

This is like a more detailed and amped up version of the experiment for second grade. First, I would suggest going outside with your students to scope out an area outside of your classroom window in search of water for animals. All animals need food, shelter, space, and water to survive.

Where do they think that the local animals are finding water? Is there a source of water outside of your classroom window? If there is, great. You can observe that water source to watch for signs that animals are visiting and try to identify which animals are getting a drink. It's more likely though that you don't have a water source near your classroom window, and this will give you the baseline for your observation.

So spend five to 10 minutes for a few days watching the area that you're planning on putting water out to see if there are animals that visit regularly. If you're not seeing animals, you can always go outside and look for evidence of animals, like we talked about before, and you'll want to keep record of animals that you've seen in the space or that you've found evidence of.

You could also consider putting out a trail camera if you happen to have one in your program to grab pictures of animals visiting while you're not watching. Once you've spent time observing and recording which animals visit the space, put together a container with water that you place outside of your window where you've been observing.

This could be a short container like a cake pan, a short bucket, an aluminum pie tin, etc. If you're in an area with freezing temperatures, it would probably make the most sense to have at least two containers that you can rotate through as your water may freeze throughout the day. Once you've identified a water source to observe, take five to ten minutes each day to watch your water source and record what kind of animals you notice coming to the water.

Are you getting different animals than you did before the water was there? Are you getting the same animals but more individuals than before? Are you getting fewer animals than before?

Take time to compare your notes from before you put water out to after you put water out. If you find that your water freezes, make sure to swap it out so that your animals have liquid water to visit. Then have a conversation with your class about what they think about their results.

Are they surprised by what they're seeing? Why might liquid water bring in animals? Where do they think the animals were getting water before? Is liquid water an easy thing to find in winter or a challenging thing to find in winter? Why is that?

Having this conversation can hopefully lead to your 5th grader surmising that winter is extra challenging for animal survival since most of the fresh water is trapped as snow, aka solid water in northern regions, and then they can start to connect that interaction between the geosphere, the frozen ground, the biosphere, the animals, the hydrosphere, the water, and the lack thereof or being locked up in the snow, and the atmosphere which creates those temperatures that create that barrier for animals and their liquid water.

[8:02]

In a nutshell, today we talked about activities for second and fifth grade about winter animals and water. For second grade, we talked about doing an experiment to see how liquid and solid water affect the kinds of animals that visit a space. For fifth grade, we talked about doing an animal evidence observational study and the role water plays in animal activity.

If you're looking for more ideas on how to study water in winter, check out my article “Snowy Science: A Guide to Teaching About Matter in Winter”, and I'll make sure to put a link for that in the show notes. Thanks for taking time to listen today. I know you're busy and I truly appreciate the time you take to tune in.

If you have any questions, wonderings or winter animals and water activities that you use, get a hold of me on Instagram at naturally.teaching, or you can email me at victoria@naturallyteaching.com. Don't forget to check out the show notes for this episode at naturallyteaching.com/episode58, where I'll have the links that I mentioned. So thanks again for joining me today, and until next time, keep exploring, keep learning, and keep naturally teaching.

Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode of the Naturally Teaching Elementary Podcast. I hope you found it informative, inspiring, and full of actionable insights to enhance your teaching journey. Connect with me on social media for more updates, science tidbits, and additional resources.

You can find me on Instagram and Facebook at naturally.teaching. Let's continue the conversation and share our passion for teaching elementary-age children together. Don't forget to visit my website at naturallyteaching.com for all the show notes from today's episode.

If you enjoyed today's episode, please consider leaving a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps me improve and reach more educators like you. Thank you again for listening, and until next time, keep exploring, keep learning, and keep naturally teaching.