This weekend I was excited for mud season and today I am looking at a few inches of freshly fallen snow and wondering if it will ever be spring. Don’t worry, Spring is still on its way, but the snow certainly feels like Mother Nature teasing us.
I noticed a sign of spring in my backyard that can be seen in the picture below. There were also little paw prints that look like hands all over my compost bin, trying to figure out how to unlatch it. Do you know who’s been here? Check this cute illustrated track guide from Yankee Magazine: https://newengland.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/animal_tracks.pdf
Racoons! Racoons are amazing creatures. And while they are not true hibernators, but go dormant and hunker down on really cold days—it’s a sign of warmer weather ahead that they are out and about.
When racoons are searching for food in streams and ponds, they dip in their hands to feel for and catch food, without looking. Racoons have an excellent sense of touch, so for today’s activity we are going to be racoons and use our hands (no peeking!) to guess what is hidden out of sight.
For this activity you will need:
A box or container
A sheet, blanket, or towel, big enough to cover your container
At least one other person
A variety of objects that are safe to touch
Paper and pencil
Directions:
- Taking turns, one person will put an object in the box and cover it with the blanket so that the others can’t see.
- One at a time, everyone gets to put their hands under the blanket to feel the object and try to guess what it is, just by their sense of touch.
- What describing words can you use? Is it soft? Hard? Squishy? Slimy? Can you make comparisons? Try phrases like “it is smaller than a mouse” or “it has a handle like a mug.”
- Before the big reveal, draw what you think is in the box, trying to capture everything you noticed.
- Pull away the blanket. Did you get it right? Was it easy or hard to figure it out, just with your hands? How do you think raccoons know if something is safe to eat when they can’t see it?
- Muddy variation: collect items are easy to wash like plastic toys, marbles, etc. Put them in a plastic bin and cover them with mud. Now take turns feeling through the mud to find the objects!
Learn more about racoons!
And just for fun:
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