NORTHERN WISCONSIN / NORTHWOODS APRIL ACTIVITY CALENDAR

Click on each month for a world of activities and fun... || January || February || March || April || May || June || July || August || || September || October || November || December || KIDS PAGES -- APRIL ACTIVITY CALENDAR! WOW! HERE'S A TON OF WONDERFUL ACTIVITIES TO DO EACH DAY IN THE MONTH. WE HOPE YOU'LL KEEP COMING BACK FOR MORE FUN AND INFORMATION EVERY CHANCE YOU CAN! PERHAPS YOUR TEACHER, PARENT, OR OLDER BROTHER OR SISTER CAN HELP YOU GATHER SOME OF THE MATERIALS YOU NEED OR HELP YOU DO SOME OF THE ACTIVITIES. MAYBE YOUR CLASS, BROWNIE TROOP, CUB SCOUT TROOP, 4-H GROUP, OR A GROUP OF FRIENDS WOULD LIKE TO DO SOME OF THESE ACTIVITIES TOGETHER. April Kids Activity Calendar APRIL April brings the primrose sweet. Scatters daisies at our feet. April 1 See How Rain is Formed Water is always present in the air, in the form of water vapor, a gas which we canât see. It is constantly evaporating from oceans, rivers and lakes, tree leaves, and even our own bodies. The vapor rises and when the conditions are right, clouds form. You can catch some water vapor to prove this. Tie a plastic bag around a tree branch that is in leaf and leave it for a few hours. Youâll notice that the bag is full of condensation from the water that the tree leaves have transpired. Or venture down to a river or stream on a cool morning, and youâll see the mist hanging over the water like a ghost. A mist like this even feels wet. When there is enough water gathered in a cloud, and when the cloud cools, the tiny droplets bump together and join one another. Their sheer weight causes the drops to fall to the ground. It may be drizzly rain or a steady downpour, but to borrow from a well-worn cliché, what goes up must come down! April 2 Think of Different Words for Rain Sometimes when there is a gentle rain we say it is sprinkling. Or drizzling, or spitting! Arenât these funny ways to describe rain? Can you think of any other ways to say itâs raining? What about ãitâs raining cats and dogsä? No one really knows where this saying came from, although many derivations have been suggested. Some people think the ancient Greeks came up with this imaginative way to say itâs raining hard. Other people think the Scandinavians should get the credit. And this is but one variation on a theme. Have you ever heard ãitâs raining chicken coopsä:? Or darning needles or pitchforks? Yicks! April 3 Compare Rain Forests to Deserts There are some places on earth where it rains every day. And other places that might not receive a single inch of rainfall in a whole yearâs time. How do you think these two places might differ? The tropical rain forests that get so much rain, need that much rain. The plants and animals there expect lots of moisture. Not surprisingly, rain forests have a wider variety of wildlife than is found in any other habitat. You may only find one tree of a particular type, however, in an areas as large as several acres. (Compare this to forests in the United States where hundreds of like trees grow together in a small area.) Plants and animals in deserts, on the other hand, expect arid conditions. some plants can sprout, flower, and bear seeds in as little as two weeks. In this way they take advantage of the rain that might fall only once a year. What would happen to these plants if there was a lot of rain? There are also places throughout the world that have a clear-cut rainy season, lasting for many months. During the dry months, these areas may be desert-like, but then the rains change all that. Countries bordering the Indian Ocean conform to this pattern, when the monsoon winds of summer bring steady rain. Dour Showers In recent years, scientists have become increasingly concerned with a problem known as acid rain. The by-products from burning fuels rise into the air and interact with weather elements, producing rain that has a high chemical content. Sulfur dioxide is one such chemical that has been raining down, killing vegetation worldwide, and threatening life on earth. Other noxious chemicals are sometimes trapped at low levels producing a dangerous smog. Acid rain is considered by some to be a short-range problem - - that is, if is corrected quickly. Most scientists agree that there are other long-term problems that should not be ignored. They think that carbon dioxide in the air is causing the earth to warm too quickly. This would cause the glaciers to melt, and there could be widespread flooding, and many animals might not be able to adapt to the change. Others think the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere is in danger of being depleted, allowing harmful ultraviolet radiation to beam down on the earth. While no solutions have been reached, much work is being done now to study the problems in hopes of turning the situation around in time. April 4 See How Drought Affects Wildlife No one expects it to rain very much in a desert. But what happens when it doesnât rain for a long time in a placed that normally gets plenty of moisture? A drought can be a devastating thing in such a place. Not only is spring and summer time rain important for keeping grass green and trees watered, but lack of snowfall the preceding winter can bring about drought. Without adequate water, all plant life suffers, and as a consequence, all wildlife is affected. Those plants and animals that we raise for human consumption feel the effects, too, of course. And forest fires area real hazard when trees and shrubs are very dry. (This rarely happens this time of year. Most droughts in the United States occur during the summer and early autumn.) You can demonstrate the effects of drought by deliberately not watering a houseplant. See how it withers? Now notice what happens when you give it a good drink of water. It revives remarkably fast. Plants in nature are able to do the same, but of course they need that drink of water to come in time. April 5 See How Animals Sense it Will Rain Weather forecasters donât rely on animals when it comes to predicting the weather. But amateur weather-watchers, such as farmers and gardeners, claim that animals can provide some clues, especially for short-term predictions. They say there is some truth to such signs as general restlessness in animals, or the relative absence of others. Lots of weather sayings comment on the behavior of animals. Maybe youâve heard of some such as these: It bees stay home, Rain will soon come. If they fly away, Fine will be the day. Flies will warm Before a storm. It is not true that you can expect rain when ants travel in a straight line, nor does a rooster crowing at night mean rain is in sight. These have become part of our folklore just as the groundhog seeing its shadow in early spring has. What have you noticed your pets doing when a change in the weather is imminent? Are there any ways that you can feel the rain coming? April 6 Read a Story or Poem About Rain Rain neednât be a reason for staying indoors. These stories and poems dispel the myth that rain and good times canât go together. What is your favorite thing about a rainy day? All Wet! All Wet! James Skofield (story) April Rain Song Langston Hughes (poem) Rain Peter Spier (story) Raindrops Aileen Fisher (poem) Rainy Nights Irene Thompson (poem) Spring Rain Marchette Chute (poem) Umbrellas Barbara Juster Esbensen (poem) A Walk in the Rain Ursel Scheffler (story) April 7 Guess Where Lightning is Striking A flash of lightning is a larger version of the electrical charge you get when touching metal after walking across a carpet. A full fledged rain storm is sometimes accompanied by thunder and lightning (especially in the summer). When the conditions are right, electrical charges build up within a thundercloud and create a flash of lightning. Most lightning jumps from one part of a cloud to another, or from cloud to cloud. Bolts of lightning only strike the earth about one-third of the time. Then what is thunder? When the air along the stroke of lightning is heated, it expands so forcefully that is generates shock waves that we hear as thunder. Did you know that you can estimate where lightning is striking by counting the seconds that elapse between the flash and the resulting thunder? Divide that number by five, which is roughly the number of seconds it takes for sound to travel one mile. The answer will be an approximate distance in miles. Are you frightened by thunderstorms? Maybe when you can see that the storm isnât that close you can relax a bit. Try explaining that to your dog cowering under your bed! During a thunderstorm, avoid tall trees, water, and anything metal. If you canât get to safety, crouch low but donât lie down. In your home, it is best not touch metal; avoid using water, electrical appliances, and the telephone until the storm passes. April 8 Take a Walk in the Rain A walk in the rain is a treat for the senses. Can you smell the damp earth? What does the rain feel like on your skin? Donât all the colors look rich when everything is wet? When you venture out during a rain, you can see some of the ways that nature deals with precipitation. Leaves on trees and bushes (and youâll have to check this again when there are more leaves) are specially shaped to funnel off water, and animals shed the wet with the help of oil fur and feathers. Some animals, such as moist skinned amphibians, make their treks to breeding grounds when it rains. Earthworms, too, surface when there is rain. Dress for the weather, with waterproof coat and boots, and enjoy a walk thatâs out of the ordinary. Who wants to stay indoors when itâs this beautiful out? Right? April 9 Make a Rain Gauge While you can collect rain in any container marked off in inches (or centimeters), you can make a gauge that is more precise. The best container for collecting rain is a wide-mouthed one. If you can find a wide funnel that will fit inside it, all the better, because the funnel will keep some of the rainwater from evaporating before you get a chance to record its depth. But measuring a small amount of rain in such a large container is difficult. Thereâs a trick for making more precise measurements. In addition to the container you have sitting outside collection rain, you will need a tall jar that is only 1ä to 1 1/2ä in diameter (olives come in jars like these). Fill your collecting container with exactly one inch of water. Pour the water into the tall jar and mark the level of the water. Divide that inch (and any others you wish to mark on the jar) into fractions. Whenever it rains, collect the rainwater in the bigger container, but transfer it to the measuring jar to see how much rain really fell. April 10 Measure a Patch of Grass All plants need water to grow, but none grow as visibly as grass. Did you know that there are 10,000 species of grass, covering nearly one-third of all the earthâs land surface? These include grasses that animals graze on, those that humans eat (such as wheat, rice, and corn to name only three), and even bamboo, which is both eaten by pandas and humans, and used as a building materials. Do you have grass growing in your yard? It has a nice cushiony feel, especially when it is kept short. Do you help mow the grass? Well, leave a tiny patch unmowed and watch what happens as the grass grows. Measure it now and keep track how much it shoots up each week, especially after a rain. Are you surprised? did you expect the grass to look like this when it was fully grown? April 11 Make Rain Pictures Have you ever been caught in the rain with your homework, or a letter to mail, written with a felt tip pen? A few raindrops always mange to land right on the ink and smudge. Why not use the rain to help you ãpaintä a picture? Start out by painting some shapes or blocks of color with water soluble paints (such as watercolors or poster paints) or markers. Place the picture outdoors when itâs raining for a brief spell. The patterns made by the drops can be very interesting. How long can you keep the painting in the rain before it washes away? Compare the results of a drizzle, gentle rain, and a full-fledged downpour. The resulting artwork might be said to have been created jointly by you and nature. April 12 Look for Rainbows Just after a rain, when the sun emerges from behind the clouds, check the sky for a rainbow (or two). Actually, it must still be raining somewhere in the sky for a rainbow to form. The sunlight is refracted (bent) and reflected (bounced back) by the raindrops, which act like tiny prisms. The seven colors we see in a rainbow are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. (Just remember Roy G. Biv to recall the colors in their proper order). Rainbows figure in many folks mythologies, and they are not generally welcome signs. This is not uncommon for infrequent phenomena. In some cultures the rainbow is seen as a snake. In others, the ground where the rainbow touches is considered unhealthy. Youâve probably heard that thereâs a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Now thatâs more like it! April 13 Create a Rainbow With a Garden Hose You can make your own rainbows (minus the pot of gold!) with a garden hose. The sun has to be shining (just like it does for the real thing), and you should position yourself with your back to the sun. Spray a fine mist in front of you, preferably against a dark background so that the colors will really stand out. Early morning, or late afternoon, is best for this experiment, because the sunâs rays are slanting lower in the sky. Can you make out all the colors? April 14 Make a Rainbow Indoors You can even make rainbows indoors, without getting wet! Fill a glass with water (make sure it is full to the top) and set it on a window sill in bright sunlight. It should project over the inside ledge just a bit. Put a white sheet of paper on the floor beneath the windows, and a rainbow will magically appear on the paper. A prism will do the same thing. You can hang a prism in a sunny window, or make some preparations for an even more vivid display of the spectrum colors. Just as the rainbows you made with the garden hose outdoors showed up best against a dark background, so will your prism bows work better in a darkened room. If you have pull shades in a south-facing room, ask your parents if you can make a tiny pinhole in a color of the shade, just big enough to let in a beam of light. Place your prism in the path of the light, and see how it projects a rainbow on the opposite wall. April 15 Look for the Blossoms of Early-Flowering Trees Most tree flowers blossom after the trees are in leaf, but some blossom before the leaves emerge. None of these blooms are very show (like apple blossoms are, for instance) but they may be the only color in the tree tops this early, so they are very conspicuous. Look for maple trees in bloom, especially the red maple which is a tree found in great numbers in the eastern half of the United States. The drooping clusters of red flowers give these trees a reddish haze. The hophornbeam is another early-flowering tree, as is the sassafras and boxelder. This last tree is in the maple family, but its common name refer to two other large shrubs that it resembles. Its leaves are like those of the elder; its white wood like that of boxwood. These first hints of color, subtle as they are, are proof that spring has sprung! April 16 Hunt for Spring Mushrooms Primitive peoples thought that mushrooms sprang from the ground where lightning had struck. Do you like mushrooms? On top of pizza, and in soups and sauces? If you do, you may know that spring has its start - - the morel. The morel is considered one of the most delectable wild mushrooms. Itâs easy to identify, and itâs good both fresh or dried. (Dried mushrooms are reconstituted in water before cooking). Morels are so highly prized that many mycologists, as mushroom hunters are called, keep their location a secret! The mushrooms fruit only briefly in the spring, but even then, areas that have yielded them for many years in the past may not in the future. Look for them in old apple orchards that have been abandoned. Or check at the base of dead elm trees. They often pop up there for a number of years before mysteriously disappearing. Be ABSOLUTELY sure of any mushrooms you plan to eat because some look fine, but are actually poisonous. (That goes for any food in the wild). See if there are any mushroom-hunting expeditions you might join, to learn first-hand which mushrooms to pick and which to avoid. April 17 Look for Animal Tracks With the spring thaw comes mud. And where thereâs mud, there are bound to be animal tracks! Although many animals are shy and elusive, they do leave behind many traces of their presence. You just have to know what to look for. Tracks made in soft ground are easy to find. You can even make permanent plaster of Paris casts for them. When you find tracks, youâll want to first identify them, and then see if you can piece together something about the animalâs activities. By measuring the distance between tracks, and noting what part of the feet made the impressions in the mud, you can tell if an animal was walking or running. Follow continuous tracks, and you might come upon an animalâs home. Do you see big and little tracks? Do you think these might be the tracks of an adult and its young? Look at the tracks you have made. What can you read into them? Casting About A good way to record any tracks you find in mud is to make plaster casts. Look for well-formed impressions that are clean and not full of water. Youâll need plaster of Paris, a half-gallon milk carton (cut in half, with the top half cut into 1ä rings), a stick and some newspaper. Youâll also need water, brought from home if you donât think youâll find any on the site. A trowel also comes in handy for digging up the casts. Place the milk carton rings around the tracks you wish to cast. In the bottom half of the carton, mix some plaster with enough water to make it the consistency of molasses and pour it gently into the rings. Let the plaster harden for 15 minutes before carefully digging up the casts and wrapping them in newspaper for the trip home. When the plaster is completely hard (wait a few hours), remove the rings and clean the casts with water. Use an old toothbrush to get out all the dirt. What youâve made are raised prints of the tracks. Press these into clay or play dough to make impressions like those you found. Or use the casts as molds from which to make new casts (again like the tracks you found in the mud). April 18 Look for Earthworms on the Ground Or, more likely, look out! Watch your step during and after a spring or summer rain, because the ground is often liberally sprinkled with earthworms. Youâve heard about it ãraining cats and dogsä? Well, some people wonder if it doesnât ãrain earthworms!ä Why else would they be lying all about? A heavy rain will often flood the earthwormsâ burrows. The worms risk drowning if they donât come to the surface. There are plenty of dangers there, however. Sunlight is harmful to earthworms, and of course there are robins! These and other worm-eating birds have a field day after a rain. (And so do anglers, who collect worms both after a rain and at night when the worms crawl out of their burrows in search of the plant material they eat). April 19 Construct a wormery With a simple set-up you can observe earthworms in your home. Make your own wormery from two panes of glass (or rigid plastic) and some 1ä wide wood strips. Glue or screw the panes to the wood, and fill the wormery with layers of various soils, such as garden soil, peat, and fine sand. Water the soils thoroughly, and add a dozen or so worms that you have dug from the garden. Take care to shield them from the light. Scatter the worms on the soilâs surface, and cover them with some dead leaves or grass clippings. Cover the entire wormery with a lightproof cloth. Check the worms now and gain (sprinkling some water on the surface occasionally) to see how their tunnels are progressing. can you see how the layers of soil have shifted? Look for the mounds of rippled soil on the surface. Earthworms burrow underground by eating the soil and eliminating it, resulting in these mounds, known as casts. When you are done watching the worms, return them and the soil to the garden. There they can continue to work the magic which gives them their nickname: ãGardenersâ best friend.ä April 20 Watch for Salamanders Salamanders are some of the reclusive amphibians. You may have seen some at night, when they are active, but youâll never find them by listening for them. Most are mute, and do not advertise for mates the way frogs and toads do. Some people mistake salamanders for lizards, which, at a quick glance, many do resemble. Salamanders prefer cool, moist areas on land, or wetlands such as ponds and streams, unlike lizards which are reptiles and generally live in drier habitats. Salamanders can often be spotted during wet weather, especially along the routes to their breeding grounds. If you ever find a salamander in danger of crossing a road, kindly help it across to the other side. There are about 250 known species of salamanders. Most of these reside in the northern hemisphere. April 21 See how Honeybees Communicate Honeybees stay in their hives when it rains, but you do have a good chance of seeing lots of them once the rain has stopped. The blossoms on trees and shrubs and other plants will have opened once again, and the bees will be eager to search for nectar. Be warned that these normally docile bees might be a bit touchy when finally satisfying their hunger, especially after a prolonged wet spell. You can safely watch them from a distance, but donât cross them, which is good advice to follow in any case. Have you ever seen bees doing funny loops in the air? A bee that has found a source of food communicates its location with a dance. The other bees watch for a circular dance (which means food is close by), or a figure eight (which indicates the food is farther afield). Watch where the bees fly off to. Can you tell how the dancing bee communicated distance, or even direction? April 22 Plant a Tree on Arbor Day Arbor Day is a nationally recognized celebration that serves to make people aware of the importance of trees. (Other countries honor trees in similar celebrations). Different days are set aside in different states, to take advantage of the best time to plant trees in those areas. April 22nd is the date chosen in Nebraska, in honor of the birth of the man who started it all. In 1872, J. Sterling Morton persuaded the Nebraska government to start a tree-planting program to replenish the trees that had been felled by settlers. That first year, on April 10, over one million trees were planted in Nebraska! Today, many millions of trees are planted throughout the United States, and millions of people learn something about trees and their role in nature. Check to see when the holiday is observed in your state by asking at a garden center. Plant a tree on your property, or join with others and plant trees in a community park or on schools grounds. Long live trees! April 23 Look for Tree Seedlings Before the grass is mowed for the first time in the spring, look for bright green tree shoots dotting your lawn (or check in a park). Most trees drop their seeds in the autumn, but they lay dormant over the winter until the warmth of spring stirs them to life. You can sometime tell what kinds of trees these tiny shoots will be. Look at the leaves - -they are often miniature versions of the parent treeâs leaves. Maple shoots sometimes have the maple ãwingsä still attached. These seedlings wonât have a chance once a mower is run over them. But even those the mower misses (and seedlings found in remote places) will have to fight for space and light and moisture. Many will also be eaten by animals that feast at ground level. Few will actually grow up to become trees. Can you grow trees from seed? You sure can. Collect some seeds in the autumn. Many need a spell of cold weather, so plant your seeds in pots of soil and leave them outside in a sheltered location until spring. Some take a long time to sprout, so be patent. Tend the seedlings carefully over the summer, and plant them in the ground come fall. Just imagine - - all the magnificent trees in your neighborhood were once tiny seedlings such as these. April 24 Examine the Roots of a Plant The roots of plants serve to anchor them in the ground, but they also provide a way for water and nutrients to reach the plants. Take a close look at the roots of a houseplant or weed that youâve pulled from the garden. Roots look like underground branches, donât they? The main roots branch off into smaller rootlets, which divide into even smaller root hairs. Water and food are actually absorbed by the tiny root hairs. You can wash the soil off a plantâs roots to see them better, or you can look closely at the roots of a bulb growing in water. (Hyacinths and other bulbs are commonly grown this way). How can these plants grow without soil? Well, bulbs contain all the food they need for flowering within the bulb itself. But other plants can be grown in water, too, providing that the minerals they need are supplied in solution. Thatâs how hydroponic gardening works. Can you think of any roots that people eat? We eat carrots, beets, radishes, parsnips, and turnips, to name a few. What about potatoes? Although potatoes are harvested from beneath the soil, they are not root crops. What we eat are actually swollen stems. April 25 See how Plants Absorb Water You can see how plants take up water with the celery stick trick. You need a celery stalk that still has its leaves, and a glass of colored water. (Use a few drops of contrasting food color, such as red). Place the stalk in the water and leave it overnight. In the morning what do you notice? Cut a cross-wise slice from the base of the stalk. Can you see the ducts that take in the water? They show up as tiny colored dots. Flowers can also be dyed in this way. In fact, do you remember seeing green carnations on St. Patrickâs Day? The blossoms had been dyed by this very method. You can dye your own flowers. White or pale blooms work best. Just place them in colored water and wait until the dye reaches the blossoms. Or try this: Carefully split the stem of a flower along its length and place each stem half in a glass of water containing a different color. What happens to the blossoms? Pretty amazing, right? April 26 Grow Some Sprouts to Eat Do you like to sprinkle sprouts on your salad? Or use them like lettuce in a sandwich? You can grow your own sprouts, any time of year, so that youâll always have some on hand. Hereâs how. Alfalfa sprouts are the most common sprouts eaten raw, and they are very easy to grow. all you need is a wide-mouthed jar that has some fine gauze over its opening (hold it in place with a rubbed band), and some seeds. Health food stores carry a wide assortment of seeds for sprouting. Soak a tablespoon of seeds in an inch of water in the jar overnight. In the morning, drain the water from the jar (without removing the cloth covering). Rinse the seeds with running water, emptying all the water from the jar when youâre done. Repeat this daily, rinsing as the seeds sprout and grow, harvesting the batch within 5 to 7 days. Trying sprouting different varieties of seeds, such as mung beans (used in Oriental cookery) or a combination of small seeds such as mustard or cress. Sprouting your own seeds is an inexpensive way to have them on hand when you want them. Make sure you sprout them during the long winter months, too, when a little fresh greenery is always welcome. April 27 Look for Fiddleheads of Ferns Ferns can be found growing in all sorts of places. You may even have some growing as houseplants in your home! We know that there were ferns on earth 300 millions years ago (fossilized remains have been found). Theyâve changed little since then. Today there are 12,000 species of ferns throughout the world. Most are large tree-like plants, some are even aquatic. Those native to the United States are usually found in the moist, acid soil of woodlands. Once the ferns shoot up from the litter of the forest floor, itâs not long before they unfurl. The tightly curled fronds give them their nickname--fiddleheads. Donât they look just like the scrolls carved on the peg heads of violins? Did you know that many fiddleheads are delicious to eat? The fronds of the ostrich fern are particularly good. Look for these in the woods, or check in the produce section of your supermarket. Fiddleheads are sold by the pound for the brief time that they are available in spring. To cook them, just remove any brown scales before steaming. They are delicious as a vegetable side dish, or chilled atop a salad. April 28 Hatch a Batch of Amphibian Eggs Spring is the time for amphibians to make their annual treks to ponds and other watery places to mate. You probably have been hearing them at dusk and on cloudy days, croaking and carrying on. Go down to the water with a pail and see if you can find any eggs to bring home and hatch. Frogsâ eggs are bunched together in a clump; toadsâ eggs are generally arranged in long strings. You might even find salamander eggs, which are larger than frogsâ eggs but found in smaller bunches. Bring only a few home in your pail, along with plenty of pond water and some algae and pond plants for the tadpoles to eat. Donât mix eggs from different species. They develop at different rates, and may feed on each other. Frogsâ eggs will grow and change into tiny tadpoles within a week or so. keep only one or two tadpoles, returning the others and any unhatched eggs to the pond. A tadpole soon develops hind legs and then tiny front legs where the gills were. (The gills are also replaced by lungs at this stage, although you canât see this). Gradually the tail disappears, during which time the tadpole does not eat. Transfer your frog to an aquarium now, one with a sloping rock or a floating log, and a cover. Frogs are powerful jumpers. You should also start thinking about returning the frog to its natural habitat. April 29 Make a Chart of Animal Characteristics When you think of animals, what comes to mind? Most people think of mammals, four-legged creatures with fur. But what about snails, salamanders, and sea anemones? These are all animals, too, of course. Make a charge that outlines some of the basic animal characteristics. Divide a continuous length of paper into sections. How many sections depends on how detailed youâd like to get. Refer to the following chart to get you started. Make a heading for each section, and under it list some of the characteristics the animals possess. Illustrate the chart with pictures cut from magazines, and your own sketches. What similarities do you notice within each group? What are some of the animals that donât conform to the norm for their group? Some Like it hot, some like it cold. . . Here are some ideas for your chart. Insects ›Three pairs of jointed legs ›Three-part body ›Hard out skeleton ›One or two pairs of wings Arachnids ›Four pairs of legs ›Two-part body ›Hard outer skeleton Sharks and Rays ›Skeleton made of cartilage ›Rough skin ›Unequally divided tail Bony Fish ›Scales or bony plates ›Equally divided tail Amphibians ›First part of life in water ›Moist skin ›Four limbs ›Webbed feet Reptiles ›Dry skin covered with scales or bony plates ›Lay leathery-shelled eggs Birds ›Warm blooded ›Covered with feathers ›Front limbs are wings ›Lay hard shelled eggs Mammals ›Warm-blooded ›Covered with fur or hair ›Young drink motherâs milk April 30 See How Living Things are Classified Early attempts to classify living things were made by the ancient Greeks. Aristotleâs work was extensive, although he divided all living things into three groups: Plants, animals and human beings! The modern scientific classification system is based on the work done by an 18th century Swedish botanist, Carl von Linne (better known as Carolus Linnacus, his name in Latin to match the language he chose for classification). The classification system works somewhat like the postal system. (A letter addressed to you is first sent to the right country, then to your state, your town, and then is sorted with letters for your street. It finally arrives at your house!). First, all living organisms are divided into five kingdoms. They are then sorted by phylums, class, order, family, genus and species. (Occasionally subclass, subgenus, and subspecies are also used). Trace the lineage of your pet, or one of the animals you watch. (An encyclopedia or other reference book will help). Do you see how the classification system works? To remember the order of the classification system, remember: King Phillip Came Over For Ginger Snaps.