Beaver In Fall
Self-Guided Activities | Sense: Smell | Water Striders | Ground Squirrels | Fungi |
Weather and Climate Scavenger Hunt | Interdependency Inventory

Introduction:
As presented, the following activity is designed to fit the grade 3 unit "Animal Life Cycles". With modifications to fit topic and students' skill levels, it would also work well for the grade 1 units "Seasonal Changes" (#2) and "Needs of Plants and Animals" (#6 and 10), the grade 4 units "Waste and Our World" (# 1) and "Plant Growth and Changes" (#1, 4 and 6), grade 5 "Wetlands" (#2, 4 and 5) and grade 6 "Trees and Forest" (#1and 2). Connection to other curriculum areas can be incorporated: math (measuring, calculations), art (sketching viewpoints and by direct observation, rubbings) and language arts (journals, reflection, poetry), drama (skits, charades, role playing), social studies (map reading, communities) 

Activity Summary:
Students will learn how beaver meet their basic needs, that there are many interrelationships among beaver and plants and among beaver and other wildlife species. 

Season: Fall 

Time: 1 - 1 ½ hours 

Preparatory: Review the concepts of basic needs, interdependency, adaptations, ecosystems. 

Equipment required: Journals, pencils, clipboards 

Setting: Beaver pond 

Instructions:

1. Move your group to the beaver dam. Have the students observe the dam. What materials did the beaver use to build it? (branches and mud) Are any of the branches missing bark? How was the bark used? (eaten by the beaver or used as bedding inside the lodge).
2. Ask the students to look at the water levels below and above the dam to figure out why beaver build dams. (they need deep water). Why do the beaver need deep water when they can swim in shallow water? (deep water does not freeze to the bottom, so the beaver can still swim in the winter. They need to be able to reach their food cache and check on the condition of the dam).
3. Have the students explore and compare the areas above and below the dam, specifically looking for changes in the environment caused by the beaver. Ask the students to list or draw the changes and list possible consequences of the changes.
Change: creek water held back/slowed down by the dam 
Consequences:
• new areas flooded, some trees may die
• new habitat created that provides shelter and food for many other animal species
• erosion of the creek banks reduced because the water is moving slower
• difficult for fish to swim upstream to spawn
Change: many trees cut down
Consequences:
• loss of old trees which provide good nesting sites
• increase in amount of sunlight reaching the forest floor enables new plants to grow and these provide food for animals
• remains of the felled trees provide food and shelter for small animals
• remains of the felled trees decay, adding important nutrients to the soil that enable other plants to grow well
4. Have the students locate the lodge and look at it carefully. What materials did the beaver use to build it? (branches) What is holding it together? (mud) Where do the students think the entrance is? (under water) Students should record their ideas in their journal and then, using direct observation, sketch the lodge.
5. Beaver do not hibernate but are reluctant to come onto the snow and ice to obtain food. To avoid this, beaver are very busy in the fall cutting branches and storing them for a winter food source. Ask the students where the food cache is located. Two clues are: cool location and beaver can reach it without going onto land. The answer is water. Beaver stick branches in the mud at the bottom of the pond. By the time the water freezes at the surface, there can be a tangle of branches stretching from bank to bank and up to 10 metres long. Can the students see the food?
6. Have the students try these math questions to learn more about the beaver's food consumption.
• A beaver eats about 700 grams of bark each day in the fall and winter. One Big Mac hamburger weighs about 250 grams. If you eat 3 Big Macs in one day, how many grams of hamburgers did you eat?
250+250+250=750 grams    OR    250x3=750 grams 
• How many more grams than a beaver did you eat?  750-700=50 grams
In spring and summer beaver enjoy a green diet of buds, leaves and pond plants. Do the students think newborn baby beaver eat any of these things? (no, like all baby mammals, baby beaver meet their needs for food and water by drinking milk from their mother. This is called nursing.)