Thorns and Threats

 

Our wonderful Four Winds volunteers came into the classroom again and presented a workshop on plants and animals and the many different defenses they have. In the puppet show, we learned what a porcupine, turtle, toad, bee, worm each use to defend themselves against predators. Ask your child what each animal does to protect itself.

After the puppet show, the children explored some plants and looked at and described their defenses. Some of the plants were prickly and had sharp thorns. We even got to touch quills from a porcupine! Then, the children helped put puzzle pieces together. They had to match their piece with another piece that shared the same defense strategy. The last part of this workshop was having the children go outside for a scavenger hunt, which they were very excited about! They had to find plant or animal life that had a defense described as: prickly, fuzzy, hard, hairy, rough, or slimy.