School Programs for Grades 4 & 5

Farmyard Animals

Grade: PreK-5th Grade @ KNC
When:  September-October, Mid-April-June

Animals are the backbone of the farm! Whether for work or for food, animals are an important part of a healthy farm, so come meet some farm animals, learn about their roles, and discover how a farmer cares for them!   Add on a wagon ride at the farm for $25!

Topics: Animal needs, Characteristics of heredity, vertebrate characteristics

@ KNC: $115-130, 1-1.5 hour outdoor, live animal program

Guided Hike

Grade: All
When:  Fall/Winter/Spring @ KNC, Anytime @ Your Place

Rent one of our naturalists to explore a Kalamazoo Nature Center trail. Our educators will help your students engage with our trails, guiding them to use their senses to make observations, build connections, and investigate the natural phenomena they discover on their hike. Choose between forest, prairie, or wetland!

Topics: Earth materials, Living and non-living, plant parts

@ KNC: $75, .75-1 hour outdoor, time dependent on selected trail.

Incredible Insects

Grade: PreK-5th Grade
When:  Fall/Winter/Spring @ KNC, Anytime @ Your Place

Insects may be small, but they can be found thriving in diverse, and amazing habitats here and around the world! Learn a little from our insect friends, discovering the amazing anatomy that connects all insects, as well as the awesome adaptations that that make them so unique. Learn to tell insects from their arthropod relatives, and transform your thinking about the complex life cycles of these six legged creatures! Program includes interaction with live bugs!

Topics: Animal classification, animal needs and life cycles, animal structures, characteristics of heredity, adaptations

@ KNC: $130, 1.5 hour indoor/outdoor, live animal program - includes a hike!
@ Your Place: $180, .75 hour indoor, live animal program

Life on a Pioneer Farm

Grade: All
When:  Fall / Spring @ KNC
Offered November - June 2018-19 school year

Travel back in time to a historic 1850's homestead to learn how settlers used domesticated animals and natural resources to make a life. From cabin to farmhouse, help with seasonal chores, use 19th-century tools, and take part in living history!

Activities vary based on both season and grade level, but this program is broken down into four main seasonal themes: Fall Harvest (Sept-October), Preparing for Winter (November-December), Spring’s First Crop: Maple Sugaring (Feb-April), and Spring/Summer Farming (April-June).

Topics: Chronological thinking, family life in the past, historical narrative, use of environment, Natural Resources, Lifestyles over time, environmental impact, Culture, Michigan and US History

@ KNC: $130-140, 1.5-2 hour indoor/outdoor program

Maple Sugaring: Sap to Syrup

Grade: All
When:  March @ KNC

Hike to the sugar bush and learn how a maple forest helps us make liquid gold! Visit the sugar house, smell the sap boiling, and taste real Michigan maple syrup.

Topics: Plant needs, parts and lifecycle, solar energy & seasons, biotic/abiotic components, Michigan history and natural resources.

@ KNC: $130, 1.5 hour indoor/outdoor program – includes a guided hike!

Michigan’s First People: Living Lightly with the Earth

Grade: 1st-8th Grade
When:  Fall: September - Mid December @ KNC

Step into the past and visit an indigenous 1700s camp. Get a glimpse of daily life and learn how a close connection with the environment provided for the family without a grocery store or pharmacy. Explore the camp from the wigwam to the garden, hear a traditional legend, help with the family chores, and play with traditional toys and games!

Topics: Traditional stories, use of environment, European contacts, impact on resources, earth materials, Lifestyles over time, environmental impact, Culture, Michigan and US History

@ KNC: $130-140, 1.5-2 hour outdoor program

Michigan’s Natural Resources

Grade: 2^nd-4^th Grade
When:  Fall/Spring At KNC, Anytime At Your Place
From water and timber to rocks and minerals, discover some of Michigan’s most important natural resources. Learn where they come from and how we depend on them. The onsite program will help students explore how our landscape was formed long ago by glaciers, and what clues to our past we can find in the very rocks around us!
Topics: identification and human use of natural resources, renewable, non-renewable, earth materials, glaciers, geologic time, Michigan history
At KNC: $115, 1.5 hour indoor/outdoor program - includes a guided hike!
At Your Place: $165, 1 hour indoor program

Once Upon A Raptor

Grade: 1st-8th Grade
When: Anytime @Your Place

Experience the living stories of four Michigan raptors in our Birds of Prey special. Our animal handlers and educators will take the audience into the minds and habits of four unique birds, and explore how their stories are not so separate from our own. This one hour program is appropriate for both classrooms and auditoriums.

Topics: animal needs, adaptations, habitats, human impact

@ KNC: $155, 1 hour indoor program, live animals program
@ Your Place: $205, 1 hour indoor classroom program, live animals program, auditorium pricing will vary

Space Station Earth

Grade: 4th-5th Grade
When:  Fall/Winter/Spring @ KNC, Anytime @ Your Place
Blast off into astronomy through hands-on activities.
Topics: Earth, sun and moon, orbit, movement, day/night, moon phases
@ KNC: $115, 1 hour indoor program
@ Your Place: $180, 1 hour indoor program

Tracing Connections

Grade: 3rd-8th Grade
When:  Fall/Spring @ KNC

Explore interactions between wild populations and learn how energy flows through natural communities with hands-on investigations. Explore the interdependent relationships in our ecosystems that help keep habitats healthy. Meet a live animal to explore its relationships in its ecosystem.

Topics: Food webs, energy sources, Great Lakes communities, ecological relationships, population changes, biotic and abiotic components

@ KNC: $140, 2 hour indoor/outdoor program, live animal program-- includes a guided hike!

Who Eats Whom?

Grade: 1st-5th Grade
When:  Fall/Winter/Spring @ KNC, Anytime @ Your Place

Build a food chain from the ground up, and follow the flow of energy from producers to consumers and sunlight to soil. Discover who eats whom in the food web of life: get active, meet a live animal, and explore the physical adaptations that help consumers stay alive.

Topics: Flow of energy, trophic levels, food chain components, Habitat characteristics, environmental changes, animal traits, physical characteristics & survival

@ KNC: $130, 1.5 hour indoor/outdoor program, live animal program – includes a guided hike!
@ Your Place: $180, 1 hour indoor program, live animal program

Wildlife Neighbors

Grade: 1st-8th Grade
When:  Fall/Spring @ KNC, Anytime @ Your Place

Animals are our neighbors in the Community of Life and they have important jobs to do! Meet some of our wild neighbors, learn the work they do that benefits our community, and learn about the adaptations that help them do their part. Call to discuss the availability of our animal educators (birds of prey, reptiles, amphibians, mammals and invertebrates) for your program.

Topics: Niches, adaptations, individual traits, habitats, communities

@ KNC: $155, 1 hour indoor/outdoor, live animals program
@ Your Place: $205, 1 hour indoor, live animals program

Custom Programming

Grade: All
When:  Anytime

Not finding exactly what you are looking for? Give us a call to design a custom program to meet your timeframe and educational needs!  We can offer field labs, thematic programs, curriculum based programs, and writing, arts, or mathematics based trail hikes.

@Your Place: Time and Price will vary.
@KNC: Time and Price will vary.