Whidbey Audubon Society sponsored a family field trip to Ft. Ebey State Park
today. Our theme for the kids was how birds make a living. We gave each
child a reusable sandwich bag and handed out snacks that represented the
foods eaten by the species we found. (Note I'm violating trade brands with
this listing)
Peanuts- seed eaters
Raisins- fruit
Goldfish Crackers - fish
M&M's- insects ( we explained that beetles and other creepy-crawlies are
hard on the outside. plus the "M" sort of looks like legs on a bug)
Animal Crackers- mammals
Oyster Crackers- marine invertebrates
Cheerios's - Vegetation
This was one of my goofier ideas but it seemed to work. The format was
for the kids to have a kind of trail mix when through. They seemed to
understand that lots of birds eat bugs and some, like crows, eat everything.
Feel free to steal this idea for your next outing with youngsters.
We ended with 31 species and very few M&M's left over!
Steve Ellis
Coupeville, Wa
sellis at coup.wednet.edu