Academics

Grade 4 Tracks and Pelts '08

In coordination with Pike's Outdoor Education Program, tracker and outdoor educator Bob Metcalf visited the Fourth Grade for a morning of local animal study in the classroom and outdoors. Metcalf first presented the assembled Fourth Graders with a slide show in which he showed animal tracks and sign and discussed how to tell which animals made them. Afterwards, he passed around the tanned pelts of a variety of New England's mammals, allowing the students to feel the differences in their furs. The pelts included that of a rabbit, ermine, raccoon, skunk, red fox, gray fox, coyote, beaver, otter, black bear, bobcat, raccoon, mink, and fisher. The students then divided into four groups, each of which spent a half-hour in the Pike woods with Metcalf, identifying tracks and signs.

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