Science Activity: (outdoors or in a gym)
Teacher leads students in an adjusted version of MIGRATION HEADACHE game. Hula hoops represent wetlands and the middle of the playing area is designated the “Platte River” by the placement of eight small trays containing “food tokens.” These can be poker chips or other plastic disks.
Before the game (inside the classroom), the teacher should discuss what sandhill cranes eat: (Their diet includes waste grain, plant tubers, invertebrates such as insect larvae, snails and earthworms, and vertebrates such as mice, snakes and frogs.)
The trays of food tokens can be labeled accordingly.
How to Play:
1. Teacher lines up students at one end of the playing area, and blows the whistle once, indicating the thermo (wind) that lifts cranes into the air. Students then begin to “flap their wings.”
2. The teacher blows the whistle a second time for the signal to begin the migration.
Note: this is not a race!
3. Students should be aware that they are “flying” from south to north. They must stop at the Platte and pick up food tokens on their way. On the trip back, (south to wintering grounds in the U.S. and Mexico) they leave off the food tokens, making sure that most tokens go into the “grain” trays.
4. On later migration trips, the teacher instructs the student to choose a “mate” (partner) while at the Platte and ”dance” (jump) before continuing the migration.