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Pond Study
Pond Critter Identification
Cards
PDF UNDERSTANDING: Pond communities offer an interesting variety of interrelated animal and plant life that often goes unnoticed. SPECIAL NOTES: Have one leader for every six to eight children. If you plan on using Pond Study on a regular basis, cut out and laminate the pond critter identification cards and store them with your materials. You can either put one critter per card, or make two-sided copies, and have two critters per card.
MATERIALS:
For the group:
PREPARATION: Gather materials. Familiarize yourself with the identification cards. Photocopy creature sheets and Pond Critter Identification Cards. If possible, visit the pond or lake site and look for the best collecting sites (i.e., least mud, low slope, no dangerous holes, etc.). Also, set and mark boundaries of collection area. LESSON: Warm-up: If possible, begin the lesson at the lake or pond. Start with a story, such as “Moving Water” to help set the stage for the activity. (See the end of this card.) Activity: Question the children: What nonliving component of a pond do the animals and plants adapt to? (Water.) Then note that they will learn how these organisms live so successfully in a watery world. Tell the group that they will be exploring five of the many neighborhoods in the pond: shoreline, pond surface, open water, shallow water and air above the water. Discuss how the five pond neighborhoods are homes for living things that have adjusted to survive. Note that each organism plays a special role that makes the pond community healthy. Explain that the group will be examining these organisms and learning about their jobs. Have the children pair up, and stress the buddy system for safety. Demonstrate how to use the equipment, then pass it out. Show the children the boundaries that you have chosen and stress the importance of staying within them. Allow them 30 minutes to search for interesting creatures. Remind them to be gentle. Encourage them, but don’t identify the creatures they collect until later. That way, they’ll be more intrigued and examine unique characteristics more closely. Wrap-up: Convene the group and sit in a circle. Hand out paper, pencils and the Pond Critter Identification Cards. Have each child choose two different animals of interest. Have them draw the pond animals and name them based on their characteristics (i.e., Wingless Big Eye = Dragonfly nymph). Then let them look at the Identification Cards and answer the questions on the Creature Sheets. Allow 20 minutes. Have each child share a creature, its name, home, job and the drawings. If time permits, lead Activity 36 - The Web of Life using pond creatures the children collected. Or add other pond organisms: mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians. OPTIONS AND FURTHER EXPLORATIONS:
It’s a sunny day. Can you feel the warm rays of the sun heat up your body? It’s not hot, but pleasantly warm. For seconds now you have been feeling the warmth against your cheeks, arms, fingers, nose and all over. The warmth is comforting. Then you notice that you have been getting smaller and smaller. You are no bigger than the head of a pin. Now you are moving. What’s most surprising is that you are not on land, and you are not walking. Instead, you are floating on your back in water. You are floating very slowly. Then you notice a momentary chill as a cloud blocks the sun. Soon, however, the sun is back and it’s warmer than ever. Actually, the sun is getting so hot that you begin to sweat. Before long, you feel like you you’re melting, and even though you didn’t think it was possible, you are disappearing. You become an invisible gas turning quickly head over heels upwards. It’s almost as if a magnet is pulling you closer and closer to the sun. You start believing that nothing will keep the sun from melting you as you rise mile after mile into the sky. But something does: cold air. At first the cold air is refreshing, but soon you wish you had brought a windbreaker — and a hat, and mittens. Before long you wish you had a winter coat. You are cold. Others like you have linked up with you. You try to brush them away, but every time you move, several more join up. What’s really aggravating is that you can’t see them. Now, almost as fast as you were rising, you and all your invisible friends start to fall. You are falling so rapidly you can hear the wind whistling. As you near the ground, you and your invisible friends become visible and lose your bonds. You are also getting warmer. You have been falling now for minutes and just as you begin to wonder if you’ll ever stop falling, you hit a leaf of a maple tree. You hit the leaf so hard that you are thrown back to a branch and from there to the trunk until you are safely back on the ground. But there is no rest for you, yet. Just when you were getting a breath of fresh air, you are swept away in a flood. You hold your breath. Again you’re being tumbled head over heels, but this time you are underwater. Almost as fast as you were swept away, you find yourself back in the water you started from, floating quietly.
In the last few moments, you have
experienced what it's like to be a water droplet passing through
the water cycle. Without water drops, we would not have ponds.
And without ponds, we would not have the fascinating animal and
plant life that make up the pond community. When you are ready
to return to your normal self, slowly open your eyes and join us
as we go pond exploring.
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Putting knowledge to work with the people of Maine
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