Our class looked at many Canadian Animals, we collected many different wild and farm animals that live on our land. In our block center, we had many plastic and plush animals that the children played with daily.

Our friends from Strathcona wilderness center, brought some deer antlers, stuffed wild birds and pelts to show us the beauty of the animals that live in Alberta as well as information that surprised us all. 

    
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We also learned about the food chain of Alberta animals in the wild and played a food chain game. The children were either a fox, rabbit, owl or a mouse. Each child was given a picture of the animal they were to be outside, every child would run around and find an animal that was higher on the food chain or they would be caught.

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Did you know that the deer sheds their antlers each year and grows new ones in the spring? Our class was very surprised as were the teachers.

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Bears

Our class had many discussions about Canadian bears. We focused on the polar bear, grizzly bear and the black bear. The children compared the characteristics of color and size, what they eat and where they live. We also compared real bears to teddy bears. Some of the highlights from the discussions were "real bears couldn’t sleep with us because they are to big, hairy and they have sharp claws and teeth" as well as " real bears live in the north, in the forest or in the zoo, we can’t live there with them" A scientist from the University of Alberta, came to our class and answered our questions and showed us a bear skull. What big teeth they have!

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In one of our lessons, we used non-standard unit bear paws to measure how many bear paws tall each of us are. The children measured our principal and were amazed how tall he was.

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