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Museum Educator-led Programs
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Great Mammals Alive!

Grades 1-2

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Program Description and Frameworks
Program Outline
Key Terms and Concepts
Classroom Activities
Print and Web Resources
Go to the Berkshire Backyard Gallery Page

Click here for printable version of all resources listed above

Discover what makes a mammal unique from other animals. Through furs and tracks, learn how mammals survive changing seasons in the Berkshires. Concludes with a hands-on activity identifying a native mammal based on clues provided. Location: Berkshire Backyard Gallery
Length: One hour
Grades: 1 - 2

Massachusetts Frameworks
Science and Technology/ Engineering Strand 2

New York Standards
Standard 4 Science The Living Environment

Introduction
Students are given a few moments to look around the gallery where mounted specimens of Berkshire animals are displayed. The group discussion begins by naming the different groups of animals: birds, insects and arthropods, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals. We will look at the mammals case and name some of the mammals that are there.

Mammal discussion
Through a lively demonstration including hands-on experiences, children will learn what characteristics that make mammals unique.

Hair	Students will examine different mammal pelts to learn the functions of different types of hair and adaptations of coloration.
Endothermic	What does it mean to be "warm-blooded"? How is this different from other animals? What are different mammal strategies to survive the cold Berkshire winters?
Milk	What do all mammal mothers feed their young?

Tracking Activity
The class will be broken into smaller groups and given a bag of tracking evidence for a particular mammal (a picture of what they eat, where they live in the winter, and a track). It is their job to figure out which mammal correspond to their clues. Then they can go to the display case to point out their mammal.

• Mammals have characteristics that make them different from other types of animals such as fur, milk, and the ability to create their own body heat.
• Each mammal leaves a particular set of tracking evidence behind as they go about their lives. Through this evidence, people can "track" which animal was there before them. "
• Different mammals survive in different ways: finding food, shelter and defending themselves by using various adaptations, some of which are shared and some of which are unique to certain species.

Key Terms Used in the Program

• Endothermic
  animals create their own body heat by eating food.
• Guard hair
  the long, top coat of a mammal's pelt.
• Under hair
  the fuzzy coat found under the top coat, which helps to keep a mammal warm.
• Camouflage
  an animal's ability to hide in their surroundings by blending in with the colors or patterns around them.
• Glands
  a part of the body that secrets a liquid, such as tears, sweat, and milk.
• Hibernator
  a deep sleep during the winter months to conserve energy and warmth. A hibernating mammal will slow its breathing rate, its pulse, its metabolism, and lower its body temperature to a few degrees above freezing.
• Scat
  an animal's feces. Different animals leave behind different shapes and sizes of scat, so it can be used to help track animals.

Mammal Habitat Observation
Take your students out on a nature walk to look for signs of mammal homes. Do you see those circular holes in the ground? Those aren't snake holes (snakes can't dig!) but most likely chipmunk homes. Look in natural grasses for rabbit runways - trampled down paths that rabbits repeatedly travel on. Look for sleeping areas - grasses that have been pressed down in a circular pattern - depending on the size they could be made my rabbits, foxes, bobcats, or deer. Winter is also a good time to look for mammal signs.

Mammals that are active need to get out to find food. Look for nut shells and excavated dirt near the entrance to their dens. Even though many times mammals will hide when they hear us coming, we can still be alert to their presence through the signs they leave behind. Look in the printed material section for Who's Track's Are These? and Stokes: Guide To Animal Tracking and Behavior for information on this topic.

Use the Berkshire Athenaeum’s on-line catalogue to search for these print resources in Central/Western Massachusetts.

Print Materials For Students

Cannon, Janell, Jewell Cannon. Stellaluna. Harcourt, 1993. Stellaluna, a little brown bat loses her mother and a nest of bird fledglings accepts her as one of the family. She tries to fit in, but keeps acting unbirdlike; hanging upside down and wanting to fly at night. By chance Stellaluna is reunited with her mother and finally learns to be proper bat.

Carle, Eric. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Henry Holt & Company, Incorporated, 1996. Children can follow along in this wonderful read-aloud story in which children see a variety of animals, each one a different color.

Durk, Jim. Is a Camel a Mammal? New York: Random House, 1988. Follow the Cat in the Hat and his friends as they explore the world of mammals. Discussed topics are where mammals live, fur, how they move, camouflage, hibernation, carnivores, omnivores, and herbivores.

Nail, Jim. Who's track's are these? Nimot, Colorado: Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 1994. Follow children through the woods investigating tracks and discovering the mammals they belong to.

Parker, Steve. Eyewitness Books: Mammal. London: Dorling Kindersley, 1989. Here is a spectacular and informative guide to the natural world of mammals. Stunning real-life photographs of bushbabies, badgers, wallabies and more offer a unique "eyewitness" view of the natural history of mammal behavior and anatomy.

Print Materials For Educators

Holley, Dennis. Animals Alive! Niwot, Colorado: Roberts Rinehart Publishers © 1994. Animals Alive! is a guide and resource for designing and conducting live animal activities that are non-invasive and observation-oriented. It provides practical, inexpensive, and ethical alternatives to traditional life science education with activities that can be used in the classroom or at home.

Macdonald, Dr. David, ed. The Encyclopedia of Mammals. 1984. New York, \ NY: Facts on File, Inc., 1995. Contains information about mammals throughout the world including animal behavior, conservation, skull size, geographical location, and ecology. Sections are broken down by family and the animals within the families.

Stokes, Donald & Lillian. Stokes: Guide To Animal Tracking and Behavior. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1986. A great resource to help in identifying animal tracks, trails, scats, and signs left behind by North American mammals.

Zim, Herbert S., PH.D. Mammals: A Guide To Familiar American Species, a Golden Guide. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987. A pocket-sized guide for students and teachers to use in the field or in class. Includes a short introduction about mammals, including extinct species, and then short paragraphs about each mammal including habitat, what they eat, and where in North America they can be found.

Web Materials for Students

Canadian Museum of Nature: Mammals
Pictures and descriptions of over 75 mammals from the African Elephant to the Eastern Chipmunk to the Zebra.

Marine Mammals
Marine mammals are animals that spend the majority of their lives in or near the sea. Animals like dolphins, whales, seals, manatees, sea otters and even polar bears are considered marine mammals. This site was created by the National Marine Mammal Laboratory.

Web Materials for Educators

Discovery School Lesson Plan Library
Lesson plans for K - 5 including animals, ecology, earth science and more.

eNature.com
eNature's Web-based Field Guides contain full-color photographs and descriptions of more than 4,800 species found in North America. With eNature's zip-code search capabilities, site visitors can quickly and easily identify their local plant and animal life.

Enchanted Learning - All About Mammals
Get lesson ideas, printouts, and information on mammals, their evolution and classification.

MassWildlife's State Mammal List
This is a list of the mammals that live in Massachusetts. It includes special notation of species appearing on the current list of Endangered, Threatened, and Special Concern species in Massachusetts.

Nature of New England
Photos and links to information about birds, butterflies, and mammals.

The following is a list of all of the mammal specimens on display in the Berkshire Backyard. A laminated copy of this list hangs from one of the mammal cases in the Berkshire Backyard. The numbers on the list refer to the number given to each specimen in the cases.

Click here for a printable list.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services, an independent Federal grant- making agency dedicated to creating and sustaining a nation of learners by helping libraries and museums serve their communities supports the Berkshire Museum.

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