ingridscience

Hand out a bone to each student and ask them to walk around and find others with similar bones.
Bones to hand out (or subset):
shoulder blades (2) humerus (2) fused ulna/radius (with elastic holding them together) (2)
fused front toe (metatarsal) bones (2)
pelvis (1) femur (2) tibia (the tiny fibula is absent) (1)
fused back toe (metatarsal) bones (1)
back (lumbar) vertebrae (4) and tail bone (fused sacral vertebrae) (1)
chest (thoracic) vertebrae (4 or more) and associated ribs (4 or more)
neck (vertical) vertebrae (6)

Students circle around a sheet to assemble the deer skeleton together, students adding their bones when asked. Older students can direct the assembly themselves, optionally using an image.
Students do not step on the sheet unless told to.

Start with the skull, then cervical vertebrae to continue down spine. Then add shoulder blades, front legs. Last add pelvis, back leg (part of one bag leg missing).

Discuss who might have taken the leg away (bobcat, coyote, fox, bald eagle) and imagine the scenario of a scavenger finding this big meal!
Find the gnaw marks on a bone where likely a rodent chewed. Likely shrew, mouse, vole or rat.
Find the missing tooth, and the ones that have overgrown on the other side without being worn away.
Discuss what happened to the skeleton once most of the meat had been eaten by other animals after it died - the decomposers and bacteria that cleaned the bones.
Draw up a food web linked to the deer as each species is mentioned.
Note all the life cycles that are linked to the life cycle of the deer.

If the students are getting wiggly sitting so long, take the skeleton apart bone by bone, asking students to find the equivalent bone in their bodies. They can stand up for much of this, wiggling each part of their bodies in turn.

The skeleton is probably a white tailed deer, the most common deer in Virginia.
A few white tailed deer facts, from this link: http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/white-tailed_deer.htm
White tailed deer is a herbivore, eating green plants in the Summer; acorns, fruits and nuts in the Fall; and twigs in the Winter. They also eat fungi when they can find it.
They have few predators. Most commonly humans, sometimes fox and bald eagle.
They can run up to 60 km per hour. They are good swimmers. Their leap can be 2.5m high and 9m long.

The skeleton can be used for a comparative anatomy study, as in the skeletal system lesson plan.
Image comparing horse (similar to deer) and human skeletons, showing the same bones in each: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/64/b8/f4/64b8f401376e3cf8eb012c9de816b3c…

White tailed deer bone photos at https://russellboneatlas.wordpress.com/home/white-tail-deer-bone-atlas/

Use playdough to make bear prints, and your own hand print.
Draw each print and label it.

Measure how long the bear footprint and your handprint is.
The bear footprint is ____ cm long.
My handprint is _____cm long.

Record the number the toes or fingers.

Discussion:
How come the bear print is about the same size as ours. Aren’t bears bigger? (The print is just the front part of their foot - their foot is twice as long as this - how much is that?)
Do they have the same number of fingers/toes as us?
What shows up on the bear print that does not show up on ours? Claws. (Show a real bear foot.)

Hold the bag of ice cubes, to feel how cold they are.
Then wrap them in each cloth in turn, and feel whether the cloth can keep your hand warmer.
(Note that if your hands get very cold from the ice, it will be hard to tell what the cloth does, so encourage students to use each hand in turn to give them time to adjust between each test.)

Students should find that the thicker, more furry, cloths keeps their hand warmer.
The air trapped in the thicker fibres insulates from the cold (i.e. it prevents heat from moving away from your hand).

Animal fur and feathers trap air to keep animals warm, sometimes from extreme cold.
Local animals with thick fur include bears, otters.

If available students can feel real animal fur. They can dig one hand into the bear fur and keep the other hand out of the fur, to compare, and feel how the hand in the fur becomes warmer (as the heat from the hand can't escape with the fur insulation surrounding it).

More information on animal fur:
Fur also keeps out other kinds of weather besides cold. (Wind and rain). Dig one hand into the fur and blow over it. Feel how protected from the wind it is. Dig one hand into the fur, and one not. Can you feel the drops of water in each case?

Bear fur is made of two types: find the downy underfur, and the coarse guard hairs.
Underfur is soft and dense and is the insulator.
The outer guard hairs are thicker, longer and coarser. They do insulate, but have other purposed as well: They keep out dirt, debris and insects. They repel water (bears shake just like a dog when they come out of water). They can be used to communicate. Raised hackles indicate that the bear is angry or frightened.
Bears molt annually in the early summer.  They shed both their underfur and outer guard hairs, leaving only a short, sleek summer undercoat.  Their new coat is growing in as the old one is being shed, so that by fall they have their thick, luxurious coats once again.
www.americanbear.org

This activity needs adult assistance.

Students put one index finger in a cut off glove finger, and the other in a glove finger coated in fat (vaseline).
Ask: If we put them both in some iced water, which do you think will stay warm longer?
Record your prediction. (see notes below)
Students put both fingers in the water, and wait until one feels cold. They record which stayed warmer longer.
Ask: Why do you think you kept warmer with the fat?

Relate to a bear, if relevent: When bears hibernate, and the temperature outside is really cold (way colder than this water), how can bears use fat to stay warm? They have a layer of fat under their skin.
Feel your fat under your skin by pinching your skin. Your fat is less than a cm thick. Black bears have a fat layer about 4cm thick. Polar bears have a fat layer up to 11 cm thick.

Measure the temperature of the ice water. Winter temps can go way lower than this.

Loop the pipcleaner under the scales at the bottom end of the pinecone, going around several turns, but leaving a stretch of pipecleaner, so it can be hung up. Spread lard on the pipcone under the scales with the popsicle stick. Sprinkle the seeds over the lard. Hang the feeders outside, near a window, so the feeding birds can be observed.
I have used plastic coated wire (thick electrical wire) strung from a window hook to a nearby tree (hung in a loop, so that it can be rotated to hang on each feeder), and between trees (with a long free end that can be used to lower and raise the line, and tie it off around a tree trunk).
Or students can take it home to hang.

Possible items to add near the feeders:
Bird identification guide. Add a tally to mark off how many of each kind of bird students spot. See the resource website for excellent bird images and bird calls.

Birds eat the seeds, which are part of a plant.

Snails are placed on the undersurface of an inverted glass bowl, and put in the middle of a table group.
Students can observe the snails moving, including the muscles rippling on the underside of the body.
Talk as a class about how they move, how they sense etc.
Students describe their observations and/or write a poem about the snail (shape poem can be written on a simple drawing of a snail).
Adults can hand the students a snail to touch - this will help inspire their writing.