Kindergarten Field Trip: Ogden Nature Center
How Plants and Animals Prepare for Winter

Before our visit to the Ogden Nature Center, our kindergarteners had been studying the big science question:
“How do plants and animals prepare for winter?”

In the classroom, students learned that living things use different survival strategies, including migration, hibernation, insulation, congregation, generation, and propagation. They discussed how animals store food, grow thicker fur or feathers, move to warmer places, and find shelter, while plants drop seeds, grow roots, or go dormant to survive the cold.

At the Ogden Nature Center, students were able to see and experience these concepts in real life.

They explored a bear den, where they connected what they had learned about hibernation to how animals stay safe and warm in winter. They met raptors and other rescued birds, learning how feathers provide insulation and how migration helps birds find food when winter arrives. During our nature walk, students spotted deer, insect galls, and winter plant structures, identifying signs that animals and plants were already preparing for colder weather.

Students also played a migration game, pretending to be deer as they traveled through mountains and avoided predators—bringing to life what it means for animals to move and adapt in order to survive.

To apply their learning in a meaningful way, students made bird feeders to take home, giving them a chance to support wildlife in their own neighborhoods during the winter months.

Throughout the day, students were curious, engaged, and eager to make connections between what they had learned in class and what they were seeing in nature. The Ogden Nature Center staff provided a wonderful, hands-on learning experience that made science come alive for our young explorers.