K/1 Curriculum Contents

Ecology Explorer Curriculum The Olbrich Explorer K/1 Ecology Explorer curriculum provides hands-on learning focused on ecosystems. Each activity includes detailed information sheets that will appear on the table with activity materials. Read the curriculum and share the Copy Pages with all chaperones prior to your field trip. Olbrich staff provides a program introduction, guided tours of the , and support for adult chaperones as they guide small groups through the hands-on activities. Enjoy!

Garden Walk Olbrich’s educators lead students on a trek through the outdoor gardens, searching for the habitats of some of the and animals that live in Olbrich Gardens.

Explorer Activities Bottle Gardens Use your HANDS! Make a tiny ecosystem in a bottle Observe your bottle back at school! Water Cycle Use your SENSES! Investigate water samples and discover the water cycle. Nature’s Recycling Use your EYES! Discover decomposition and what garbage has to do with it. Habitat Use your IMAGINATION! Design your own garden and match living things with their proper habitat

Supplemental activities are included in the curriculum for use in your classroom before and after your visit to Olbrich Botanical Gardens.

Olbrich Ecology Explorer Program 2006-K/1

Garden Walk

Objective: Students experience the sights, sounds, feelings, and smells of a garden. Students learn to identify what living things need to survive by investigating different habitats in the garden. Students are encouraged to ask questions and to develop strategies for finding answers through observation and experiment.

Method: Olbrich educators take students on a tour through Olbrich Gardens. Students are encouraged to use their senses to make observations about the environment and plants they see and to identify different habitats as they go.

Background for Teachers: Olbrich’s outdoor gardens are an exciting place to explore, especially because many of the plants and animals are familiar to us in Wisconsin but are presented in different garden styles. Children will get the opportunity to spot plants and animals that they may have in their backyards while touring different specialty gardens. While in each of the specialty garden the children will identify the habitat of a or animal that lives there.

The guided tour of the outdoor gardens will take the students into 4 of our specialty gardens including a pond dipping activity at the Discovery Dock. The tour will include stops in the formal Sunken Garden, the Discovery Dock, the scented Herb Garden, and the beautiful new .

Back on the Bus: After your trip to Olbrich, ask students what they thought was most interesting about Olbrich Botanical Gardens. What was their favorite plant? What was the most surprising thing they learned? What colors do they remember seeing in the Garden? What kinds of smells? What lives in the garden?

Olbrich Ecology Explorer Program 2006-K/1

What’s in the Water? Chaperones & Teachers: This sheet contains Use Your NOSE & EYES to detailed instructions for your activity. investigate each water sample. Take the time to read through the directions before Have the students study each water sample. you begin guiding students through the activity. Feel free to Take each bottle, one at a time, shake it up, ask Olbrich and investigate it as a group. Educators any questions! First, LOOK at each bottle.

Does the water LOOK clean? o Discuss as a group which samples LOOK clean.

Next, pull up the top and SMELL each bottle.

Does the water SMELL clean? o Discuss as a group which sample SMELLS the cleanest.

Discuss as a group which of the water samples is clean.

1. How are the samples similar? How are they different?

2. Do the water samples smell the same?

3. Which one(s) would you want to drink? Why?

4. Which one(s) would a plant want to drink? Why?

5. Which of the samples do you think is clean?

Olbrich Ecology Explorer Program 2006-K/1

Answers:

Sample #1 – Sand and Water

Sandy water wouldn’t taste very good to people but many plants and animals wouldn’t mind drinking it.

Sample #2 - Vinegar and Water

Even though the water looks clean, it could contain something that could be harmful to people or plants.

Sample #3 – Water

This plain water would taste fine to people and would also be safe for plants.

Sample #4 – Pond Water

This pond water has lots of algae and tiny bugs that make it look murky. Most plants and animals wouldn’t mind, but people wouldn’t want to drink it. Would you?

Olbrich Ecology Explorer Program 2006-K/1

Chaperones & Water Cycle Teachers: This sheet contains detailed instructions for your activity. Take the time to read through the directions before you Water Cycle Matching! begin guiding students through the activity. Feel free to ask Olbrich Educators any questions!

Have the students take a moment to look at the water cycle diagram. Then, in order, read each card aloud to the group. Follow the instructions on each card as you go through them.

Card #1 The water we drink today is the same water that was on the earth thousands of years ago. It is continually being recycled in a process called the water cycle.

Point to the places you see water in this picture?

Card #2 The water cycle works when the heat from the sun causes water from lakes, oceans, and streams to rise into the air as vapor.

Place the WATER VAPOR on the diagram where water is rising into the air.

Card #3 When the air cannot hold any more vapor it turns into fog, mist, or clouds.

Place the CLOUD on the diagram where water formed a cloud.

Olbrich Ecology Explorer Program 2006-K/1

Card #4 Air temperature and pressure cause the clouds to break apart. Rain, hail, or snow falls from the clouds.

Place the RAIN on the diagram where rain is falling from the clouds.

Card #5 The precipitation falls to the ground and runs into streams and rivers, which flows back into the oceans. Then the water cycle begins again!

Place the pool of WATER on the diagram where water is collecting in the sea.

Extension If you have time, now ask the students to point out places they see water in the picture. Highlight the less obvious places like clouds and water vapor.

Olbrich Ecology Explorer Program 2006-K/1

Chaperones & Teachers: Nature’s Recycling This sheet contains detailed instructions for your activity. Use your EYES to sort the “garbage”! Take the time to read through the directions before you begin guiding students Work together to sort all the “garbage” into through the activity. two piles, one for Natural things and one Feel free to ask for Unnatural things. Olbrich Educators any questions!

What does Natural mean? Natural = things made by nature

What does Unnatural mean? Unnatural = things not made by nature, or made by humans

Can you find a pinecone in nature? Can you find a soda can in nature? Etc.

Once you have decided which is natural and unnatural, sort the natural items into the “” and the unnatural items into the “landfill”.

Composting is nature’s way of taking care of its garbage. Things that are natural will decompose or break down and will eventually turn into soil.

Use the chart to find out how long each item would take to decompose or break down if it was littered on the ground.

Olbrich Ecology Explorer Program 2006-K/1

Here are the answers: Natural or Source Decomposition Unnatural Time #1 – Wood Natural trees 20 years

#2 - Soda Can Unnatural made of aluminum 300 years

#3 - Sandwich Bag Unnatural made of plastic 400 years

#4 – Apple Core Natural grown on trees 2 months

#5 – Bottle Unnatural made of glass maybe never

#6 – Car Unnatural made of steel 100 years

#7 – Banana Peel Natural grows on trees 2 months

#8 – Foam Cup Unnatural made of styrofoam maybe never

Olbrich Ecology Explorer Program 2006-K/1

Chaperones & Decomposition Teachers: This sheet contains detailed instructions Investigate the decomposition for your activity. Take the time to read column! through the directions before you begin guiding students through the activity. Feel free to ask These decomposition columns are like a compost bin. Olbrich Educators They can turn natural garbage into soil. any questions!

As the natural garbage piles up in the column, over TIME it eventually breaks down and turns into soil.

Use the magnifying glass to LOOK closely at each column.

Each column contains natural garbage that is decomposing or breaking down into soil.

Put them in order, youngest to oldest.

Youngest = natural garbage that hasn’t broken down

Oldest = has broken down into soil

How does this work?

Tiny decomposers, like fungi and bacteria, eat away at the natural garbage and turn it into soil.

Olbrich Ecology Explorer Program 2006-K/1

Chaperones & Teachers: This sheet contains Habitat detailed instructions for your activity. Take the time to read through Everything needs a home! the directions before you begin guiding students through the activity. Feel free to What is Habitat? ask Olbrich Educators Habitat is something that is important to every any questions! living thing. Habitat is where something lives, what it eats and drinks, and where it spends its time all day (space).

HABITAT is Food, Water, and Space! Animals and every living thing in the world need those four things to survive.

What is your HABITAT? 1. Where do you live? 2. Where does your food come from? 3. Where do you get water? 2. Where do you spend time during the day or sleep at night?

All of those things are your HABITAT

Habitat Matching Game

LOOK at pictures of animals in front of you. Now LOOK at the pictures of different habitats, or homes, for these animals. Which animal do you think lives in each habitat? Can any of these animals live in more than one habitat?

Would an elephant live in a garden here? Why not?

Which one would most likely have a person in it? Why?

Olbrich Ecology Explorer Program 2006-K/1

Chaperones &

Teachers: This sheet contains Design a Garden detailed instructions for your activity. Take the

time to read through Use your IMAGINATION to the directions before you begin guiding design a garden habitat! students through the activity. Feel free to ask Olbrich Educators any questions! A Garden is a habitat for many living things.

What are some things that would live in a garden?

If you had your very own garden, IMAGINE what it would look like.

Draw a picture of your garden habitat.

Make sure you think about:

What will live in your garden?

What will it need to survive (food, water, shelter, space).

Will people use your garden?

Olbrich Ecology Explorer Program 2006-K/1

Chaperones & Bottle Gardens Teachers: This sheet contains detailed instructions Use your hands to create for your activity. Take the time to read a mini garden in a bottle! through the directions before you begin guiding students through the activity. Each group will make a small bottle Feel free to ask garden to take back to school to Olbrich Educators investigate. any questions!

What do plants need to grow? (water, soil, sun, air)

Can plants get everything they need to survive in a small bottle dome like this?

Make a Bottle Garden

1. Place a scoop of soil in the bottom of the bottle garden.

2. Have each student plant one small plant in the moist soil in the bottle garden. Plants need soil to grow.

3. Cover the garden with the dome and talk about what else the bottle garden will need to survive. (sun & water)

When you are finished planting your bottle garden, leave it on the table to be packed up for the trip back to school.

Olbrich Ecology Explorer Program 2006-K/1

Supplemental Activities for Your Visit to Olbrich Gardens

Here are some suggestions for deepening students’ understanding of the concepts covered during your fieldtrip.

GARDENS Have a discussion about what a garden is. Why do people have gardens? Does anyone in the class have a garden? Is it a garden, a ? What kinds of things do you do there/use it for? Explore your schoolyard to see if you can find a garden or something that was planted on purpose. Why was it planted? Who planted it? Have students design a garden for the schoolyard, or better yet, plant a garden to care for over the year.

HABITAT Every living thing needs a habitat to survive. Habitat can be broken down into; food, water, and shelter. Have the students write or tell a story about a chosen animal, identifying how that animal’s needs are met in their habitat. Have students create a habitat exhibit. Use drawings, photos, and magazine clippings to create a display showing the habitat of a chosen animal or plant. Add to the bird habitat in your schoolyard by making pinecone birdfeeders. How could other animals be enticed to live in the schoolyard? What would attract them? Even people have a habitat. Have the students draw pictures of their habitat including what their food, water, and space is. Does habitat have to be a wild place? Cities, gardens and schoolyards can actually be habitat for many things. Take a walk in the schoolyard identifying the plants or animals that live there. Do they have everything they need to survive (food, water, and space)?

NATURE’S RECYCLING Have a discussion about what is considered garbage. Investigate where garbage goes in your school, town, or county and what happens to it when it gets there. Once something is in the landfill, what happens to it? When something is recycled, like a soda can, where does it go? Act like detectives and investigate what happens to trash at your school. Follow its path through the system.

Olbrich Ecology Explorer Program 2006-K/1

Have a discussion about litter. What is considered litter? Are pinecones litter? What about pop cans? What happens to litter left on the ground? Have a litter-collecting contest to see who can get the most trash. While you are out there, investigate natural “litter” and talk about why it’s OK to leave it on the ground.

WATER Ask students, “Have you used water today? Why is water important to us? Why is it important to plants and animals?” Read the students a short story about someone getting ready for school, and have them count the number of times water is used (i.e. drinking, washing, toilet, etc.). Then have them think of their own morning to count how many times they used water.

Olbrich Ecology Explorer Program 2006-K/1