Homeschooling at Walt Disney World

We’ve returned from our African safari!  What an amazing variety of animals call the jungles and savannas of Africa home.

Our travels at Disney’s Animal Kingdom gave us an opportunity to see many interesting and unique animals “up close and personal”.  We did our homework before we went to learn about the habitats/biomes of Africa and what animals need to be able to live in the different areas.  Here is what we were able to see and learn when we visited the animals in their own habitats:

The Pangani Forest Trail includes areas with lush vegetation and waterfalls which are home to animals such as the colobus monkeys, the okapi (imagine giraffe that has a zebra body) and beautiful birds and ducks (too many to mention but there is a wonderful guide available to help identify the various types).  An indoor “research station” has displays with naked mole rats (not as cute as in the Kim Possible show), a pancake tortoise, a scorpion, frogs, snakes and more.  As our journey continued we saw hippos enjoying a swim and meerkats on the savanna (on the day we were visiting the guide claims they were keeping a look out for a pesky hawk that was in the area).  As the trail winds toward the end there are two groups of gorillas to see (one was a family group and the other was a group of male gorillas).

Along The Kilimanjaro Safari we found hippos, elephants, giraffes, rhinos, flamingos (their private little island is in the shape of a hidden Mickey), lions, warthogs, gazelle, impala, a cheetah and crocodiles.  The Safari is designed to be more of an entertaining attraction than a science lesson (so it was nice that we did some research before we set out on our safari), but the guides do a nice job of including a few interesting facts along the way.  There is also a large sign posted inside of each Safari vehicle that shows a picture and the name of each animal on the safari to help everyone identify their favorites.

To cap off our African adventure we attended The Festival of the Lion King.  We have been to Animal Kingdom more times that I can count, but for some reason we had never taken the time to visit this amazing show…I had no idea what we were missing!!  This is a beautiful show that is fun for the kids (their favorite characters from the Lion King are front and center) but also a wonderful celebration of African music, dance and costumes.

We enjoyed our studies of African habitats and animals.  Now we can get our passports ready as we head to Asia!

My youngest son LOVES animals so we are very excited to shift our science focus to animals and habitats.  Our first stop on this journey will be the animals (and their habitats) of Africa.

We are going to spend just a week or two on the subject therefore I don’t need any materials that are overly complex.  I have found a couple of wonderful resource to help us map out our adventure.

The first is Enchanted Learning which has numerous printouts on the subject.  The site’s main menu offers the ability to find information based on animal names, biomes (for Africa you could look at deserts, grasslands, etc.), or geography (select Africa).  The site offers printable books, “label me” sheets, facts and information, coloring pages, craft ideas and more.  We will probably use the animal pages as they provide information about the characteristics of the animal as well as printable sheets to color and label.  We’ll select a few animals each day that we would like to learn more about.

We will also be using a resource called “Discovering the Continents: Animals of Africa” (available through CurrClick).

Here is a description, from the author:  In this unit we will be looking at the different habitats and what animals they support. We will learn about predators, prey and scavengers and the amazing partnerships some animals have developed to survive and thrive. We will also be looking at game reserves and nature conservancies and the role they play in Africa. We will learn about different animals and tracking them.

This unit study package includes many hands-on activities like lap-n-note pages, animal alphabet cards, an African Safari game and journal pages.  This is a downloadable file that will appeal to a wide variety of ages.

All of these at-home efforts will lead up to a day of fun and learning at Animal Kingdom.  Before we head out we will be sure to learn about some of the animals we will meet as we travel the Kilimanjaro Safari and Pangani Forest Trail.

We’ll fill in the details on our “Learning” part of our trip after we return from the African safari!

Today we spent an interesting day at SeaWorld.  This year my son is taking a science class and about once a month his instructor offers guided trips to local spots of interest.  Today’s trip was especially interesting because for years our instructor worked as the education coordinator for SeaWorld.  Between his love of nature and knowledge of the park we learned more about the plants and animals at SeaWorld then we could have ever imagined.

What I think I really enjoyed most about the trip was the fact that he approached it much the same way we do when we visit a park for a field trip (vs. how we approach it for a fun, family day).  He took time to point out plants and structures around the parks as well as various types of animals (both those that are local and those that are part of the “collection”).  He gave us interesting background information and pointed out subtle characteristics that could easily be missed if you were just rushing from one ride to another.

I’ve been thinking about different ways to document our field trips.  I know we don’t want to carry around a big notebook, but it would be nice to have a way to remember important facts learned during our visit.  During our trip today we were given a type of scavenger hunt with clues and a space to write the name of a plant or animal that met that description.  It was short and to the point (and only a ½ sheet size piece of paper so it was easy to carry around) but it was also a handy way to make notes and serve as a reminder of our adventures.  I’m going to plan some similar science related trips to WDW after the first of the year so I think I’ll give this method of documentation a try.  The preparation will take a bit of research on my part but I’m sure I can come up with basic questions to help guide our trip and record our learning…I’ll keep you posted on our success with it.

In case you are headed to SeaWorld soon, or are just in the mood for some trivia, here are a few of the interesting scavenger hunt questions we explored today.  The answer to each is a plant or animal:

-          Swims by moving tail up and down

-          Swims by moving tail side to side

-          Was used for postcards or plates

-          Sleeps while standing on one leg

-          Lives only south of the Equator

-          Has five pairs of gills

-          Is an animal, but looks like a plant

-          Has “balloons” to keep it upright

How many do you know?  I know that I learned some new things!

(here are the answers: marine mammal, fish, seagrape leaves, flamingo, penguins, shark, leafy sea dragon, kelp)

Here is some great info about bats from the Disney Parks Blog

The Disney’s Animal Programs and Environmental Initiatives team really gets into the Halloween spirit each year, hosting a variety of activities throughout the Walt Disney World Resort. Of course, there’s lots going on at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. For example, our bats, which Guests can see every day on the Maharajah Jungle Trek in Asia, get their annual physical exams each year in the days surrounding Halloween. The exams take place in the mornings in view of our Guests at our veterinary hospital at Conservation Station.

To us (and we hope you’ll agree!), bats are “special not spooky.” The bats at Disney’s Animal Kingdom primarily eat fruit, but the smaller bats you might see in your backyard are insectivores—they just love eating all those pesky mosquitoes. A great way to help out the bats in your neighborhood is by building them a bat box. Another way is to support the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund (DWCF) when you visit Disney’s Animal Kingdom and many other locations at the Walt Disney World Resort. DWCF supports wildlife conservation around the world and here in the U.S. and is helping to protect bats by providing funding for the great work of Bat Conservation International. To learn how to build a bat house and much more, visit the Bat Conservation International Web site here.

Bat fact: The Malayan Flying Fox, which Guests can see when they visit Disney’s Animal Kingdom, is one of the largest bats in the world with a wingspan of close to 6 feet. Being an Old World fruit bat, they can’t echolocate and instead use their excellent eyesight to fly at night and sense of smell to locate food.

We decided to spend a weekend away at Disney’s Vero Beach Resort.  We love taking trips to the beach when the weather starts to cool off so this was a nice time to relax and enjoy the sun and sand.

Along with the usual planned activities you will find at Disney resorts, Vero Beach also offers several programs that are nature related.  One morning we enjoyed a guided nature walk.  It was a wonderful opportunity to talk to a knowledgeable beach comber and look for more than just the typical pretty shells. 

She did tell us about various shells (their names and the creatures that call them home), as well as point out various plants, animals and birds we might see.  One very interesting “treasure” she shared with us was a fossilized ghost crab.  It was sand that had formed around a ghost crab thousands of years ago.  It was as hard as a rock, but you could distinctly make out the shape of the crab’s body and claws.

She also told us about the sea turtles that visit that stretch of beach to make their nests and lay their eggs.  Green Sea Turtles, Leatherback Turtles and Loggerhead Turtles usually travel to Vero Beach each year.  There were still some stakes in the sand where a nest had been but there were no more nests left there at this time of year.

Several years ago my family was vacationing in Emerald Isle, NC and we were fortunate enough to see the eggs in a sea turtle nest hatch.  It’s an amazing site to see those tiny creatures make their way to the water with the moonlight as their guide!

Disney’s Vero Beach resort is involved with Disney’s Worldwide Conservation program and the money donated by guests at the Vero Beach resort stays locally to help with the sea turtle efforts. 

One of the things I think is really fun on Disney’s conservation website it the information about “Dory” the loggerhead turtle that Disney’s Vero Beach Resort sponsored in the 2009 Tour de Turtles!  If you want to see what it’s like to track turtles by satellite be sure to check it out! The Tour de Turtle site also has some wonderful educational materials if your science studies focus on sea turtles.

Sure, I’ve heard that phrase before, but I’m not sure I ever really stopped to think about what it meant.  This week in my son’s science lesson he learned about oil & water, asking the question – “do they mix?”  They talked about how detergents can pollute water and the effects they can have on birds and wildlife.

Birds (like ducks) that swim in the water, spend hours each day streaking their feathers with oil (a process called “preening”).  They have a gland near their tail that produces an oil, they then use their beaks to pick up the oil and run it over their feathers in order to coat their feathers and “waterproof” them.  If these birds don’t have the oil on their feathers the feathers will get waterlogged and the bird will sink.

My son’s class did an experiment to show how detergents break down oils.  The point was to show what would happen to the oil on the birds’ feathers if the waters were polluted with detergent.  My son thought this was very interesting.  We live in Florida and see all types of water birds.  Until now he didn’t understand why the birds were always “grooming” themselves!

So of course this new found knowledge called for a trip to Animal Kingdom and some bird watching.  There are plenty of ducks to be seen in the Oasis area.   We even saw several ducks begging park guests for some snacks (I don’t think these were part of the attraction, but rather uninvited guests…!).  We looked at other birds such as the ibis, cranes (we loved the crowned crane), and flamingos.

We decided to take a ride on the Kilimanjaro Safari to check out even more birds.  We love traveling through the safari since every trip is a little bit different depending on where the animals are and what the are doing.  We had a great view of the okapi and the saddle-back stork and we had to pause for a minute to let the bongo cross then road.  Then we were told to look to the left to see the hippos.  We were treated to a great view of about 8 hippos when the guide said…”and look at those birds, they don’t produce an oil to cover their wings so they have to stand there with their wings open so the sun can dry their feathers.”  My son just about came out of his seat.  He said “my science instructor said there were just a couple of water birds that didn’t make that oil and I just saw one of them!”  Honestly, I could not have planned it any better!!!

In fact there are a couple of types of water birds that don’t produce the oil, they are cormorants and anhingas.  I believe the birds we saw were cormorants.  We have some anhingas living in the ponds near our house as they are native to this part of the country, but I’ll wait for another day to point those out.  He had a great time tying his learning to his adventure at Animal Kingdom and the look on his face was priceless!!

Here is a trivia question – who invented the word “dinosaur”?

We learned that and so much more on the field trip we took today. We headed about an hour south-west of Orlando to Plant City, FL and DINOSAUR WORLD.

If you’ve ever had the desire to walk among the dinosaurs, this is your place!

Here are some of the things Dinosaur World has to offer

Dinosaur Forest – over 150 life size dinosaurs which are displayed outdoors with explanatory signs

Fossil Dig – search for authentic fossils in an paleontological setting

Museum - stroll through a dinosaur museum with everything from dinosaur eggs to raptor claws

Boneyard – be a paleontologist and take part in some field work or just dig in the sand

Skeleton Garden – see life size dinosaur skeletons at the Skeleton Garden

Playground, gift shop and picnic area (no food is available to purchase to take a picnic lunch)

Even though we were experiencing almost record breaking heat today, the trees in the Dinosaur Forest provided plenty of shade so it was very nice walking around, reading all of the signs. My kids had a great time looking for their favorite dinosaurs and pretending they were in a Jurassic Park movie, surrounded by hungry dinosaurs!

The instructor that coordinated our trip provided a scavenger hunt for the kids to complete as they walked around the forest. You could also have your kids take a notebook and classify dinosaurs (by size, where they were found, what the ate, etc.) or have them draw pictures of their favorite dinosaurs to help document their visit.

Answer to the trivia question – Sir Richard Owen invented the name “dinosaur” in 1842, it comes from the Greek words “deino” and “sauros” meaning “terrible” and “lizard.”

This week in my son’s science class they studied animal tracks.  Their question -what can be revealed about an animal by the tracks it makes?

They started by learning to identify impressions (negative) made in the soil.  A particular track can identify a particular animal.  Take a look and make some notes — is the impression large or small, what does the outline of the impression look like, are their claw marks?  Next, think about where the tracks are found.  Are they in mud, sand, snow?  Are they in the middle of a trail, near a tree or under a plant?  Can you tell if the animal stopped in an area for a while (perhaps to eat) or which direction was the animal going?  Was there just one animal or were there several animals – if there were several are the tracks the same (a pack of similar animals) or different (perhaps one animal was chasing another).

After my son’s class discussed what to look for, they found an animal impression, mixed their plaster of paris and cast their animal track.  After the plaster set for a day my son was quite excited to have his own cast of a deer track.

My son felt like he was somewhat of an animal tracking expert since he has visited the Kids’ Discovery Club in Animal Kingdom’s Pangani Forest Exploration Trail several times.  At this Kids’ Discovery Club stop they encourage you to look around for more than just impressions left in the ground to help you track animals.  They also encourage you to look for two other things – what the animal might have eaten (does it look like leaves or branches may have been eaten, was the animal digging in the dirt?) and also for one other sign…let’s just say, what the animal leaves behind after it eats!

There are 6 Kids’ Discovery Club stops around Animal Kingdom.  Each stop includes educational information presented by a knowledgeable guide.  Kids are given a card to collect stamps from each stop, and they receive a special Rafiki stamp after they complete all 6 stations.  This is a free and very informative program.  It’s also a fun way to add some learning to your day.