SCHOOL: Richland Creek

GRADE LEVEL: Kindergarten

PROGRAM: Animal Detectives

INSTRUCTOR: Rachel Ledebuhr

Scientist Rachel’s Experience:

On such a gloomy, rainy day, I was psyched to walk into Mrs. Werthington’s classroom and find 18 bright and shining faces sparkling with curiousity and excitement for their science field trip.
“Will we get to see live animals today?”
“Will we get to take something home with us?”

I knew right away that this was going to be a great day. The young zoologists learned about the entire animal kingdom today, as we spent time exploring each type of animal. We started with birds, and the students loved pretending to be different flocks using “beaks” to pick up bird food and discovered the reason why birds have such different beaks!

We then moved on to arthropods. After learning how to say that funny word, it was time to split into labs and hold some living arthropods – hermit crabs! I definitely loved watching the jr. Scientists either diving right in or tentatively looking from afar. Hailey even related her experience to a book she had been reading!

Once the students had the chance to dig through soil and discover even more arthropods (super-worms and rollie pollies), it was time to meet another friend: Pineapple the Armadillo Lizard. I was impressed that every student wanted to pet this reptile’s spikey scaley tail as we learned what being a reptile is all about.

Finally, after looping back around and discovering the difference between mammals and birds, it was time for our take-home experiment! The jr. Scientists did some chemistry of their own and created Slimy Sap that they used to catch “bugs” just like a woodpecker would in real life!

Thank you, students of Mrs. Werthington’s class and all the kindergarteners of Richland Creek Elementary for lighting up my day!