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Boardman Park director visits Holy Family
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With furs on loan from the Ohio Division of Wildlife, Boardman Park's Karen McCallum taught the kindergarten and first-grade students at Holy Family School about Ohio animals. She had the students guess which animal pelts she was holding, and they eventually guessed correctly that she was holding a bobcat pelt (left) and a river otter pelt (right).
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor.During her discussion on Ohio wildlife, Boardman Park's Karen McCallum explained that the difference between predator and prey animals were the animals' eyes. Holy Family first-grade teacher Irene Stout (left) and kindergarten aide Nicole Valley put their hands around their eyes to experience what a predator's line of vision might look like.
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When looking at the fur of a raccoon, Juliana Glass decided to take a look under the tail to get a different perspective.
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Mara Blanko (center) liked the soft feel of the furs.
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Joseph Macejko (left) got great amusement out of Grace Raymer's use of a deer antler.
By SARAH FOOR
Boardman Park activities director Karen McCallum can usually be found near anything fun that happens at the park. But on May 20, she took a road trip to Holy Family School to teach a group of kindergartners and first-graders about Ohio wildlife.
To help spice up her lesson, McCallum brought a bag of goodies she used as teaching tools — a collection of Ohio animal furs on loan from the state Division of Wildlife.
“Our state is very lucky in that we have a wide selection of wildlife and they don’t just live in far-away forests. Habitats are everywhere, as long as it is outside and the animals can find food, shelter, water, and space. Even your backyard can be a habitat,” McCallum pointed out.
McCallum’s goody bag included the furs of a bobcat, skunk, possum, river otter, raccoon, beaver, coyote, muskrat and white-tailed deer. McCallum shared a wealth of interesting facts about each animal, including the impressive range of a skunk’s spray, how to determine the age of deers and the fact that coyotes live in all 88 counties in Ohio.
After the presentation, the students were free to touch and examine the furs on display. Afterward, they played a lively mix and match game with McCallum.
First-grade teacher Maria Valley was happy to see her students learning by doing.
“Science is a hands-on activity. I can talk about all of this until I’m numb, but having Karen [McCallum] let the kids see and feel the differences between the animals really brings it to life for them,” Valley shared.