Getting to know animal prints

Learning to track gives you the ability to come into the center of the lives and homes of animals. sometimes it is even important for your own safety. You must always respect the animals by being non-intrusive. Getting too close to animals can cause serious disturbances including: abandoning young, disturbing nesting grounds, damaging foraging areas, and may even cause the animal's death. 

First students had to find out what animal tracks could be possible to find from the nature. They searched some information and results were that they will concentrate to these most common animals:

Squirrel

Fox

Rabbit

Bear

Ermine

Wolverine

Then they started learning by finding those animal prints from books. They also learned on which direction the animal was going. 

Bear print:

Wolverine:

Next lesson was outside, at the school yard. Students took their rulers with them and made some prints to the snow. Then they took pictures and draw the direction "animal" had gone to the photo. 

Squirrel:

Ermine:

During the lesson three the students walked in a forest. They tried to find some animal tracks, they would recognize. All the groups of students could find some and they took some pictures. They marked the direction to the pictures again. 

Fox:

During the fouth lesson the students tested what they had learned. 

They used this test: 

https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-10105145

It became really obvious to the teachers and the students themselves that they had learned a lot, because they got really good results from the test. They also thought that outdoor learning was fun.