Stephens Elementary School

Bartow, Florida

Mrs. D’s First Grade Class

Final Report of Findings from All Groups Combined

Our first grade class worked in groups of three or four students for each square.  We recorded our observations by drawing maps of our squares using a bird’s eye view perspective.  We then made a key to go with each of our maps and tallied our findings on a chart when we returned to class.  Look below to see what we found.

Animals We Found:

During our observation, we saw lots of ants, especially in the square that had an anthill.  Some of the ants we saw were fire ants and black ants. We also saw some ladybugs and other types of beetles.  Bees, butterflies, dragonflies, and wasps were some of the flying bugs we saw.  Being here in sunny Florida, we saw several lizards scurrying around.  One of our groups had a spider web in their square, so we even saw a spider.  Some of us saw a few worms.  Although we do have plenty of frogs, snakes, and snails in our state, we didn't see any in our squares.  Some of us saw birds fly over our squares and one of our groups saw a squirrel up in the tree in our square.  Our favorite bugs we got the chance to see were ant lions, but we call them doodlebugs.  We learned that doodlebugs are interesting little creatures that are very skilled at making traps to capture ants and other bugs for food.  Look them up on the Internet and see why we like them so much.

Plants:

          We saw many weeds while we were observing our squares.  We also saw bushes and grass.  One of our groups had a couple of mushrooms in their square, while another group had a large Oak tree in their square.

Non-living Things:

We saw plenty of dirt, sand, and small rocks in our squares. We saw some mud, but it was dried up. One of our groups had a sprinkler in our square.  Unfortunately, we did have some paper in one of our squares, but at least, it was only one tiny candy wrapper.  We thought it was a good thing that we didn't see any plastic in our squares.  We did see some paw prints.  This led us to a discussion about how paw prints are non-living signs of living things that were once there.

Comparison:

          We thought it would be interesting to compare our findings to Miss Shea’s first grade class in Redding, Connecticut, since we are so far down south and they’re way up north.  Surprisingly, even with the difference in climates, we saw many of the same things. 

Both of our classes saw lots of ants, dirt, and rocks.  Our school and their school both have a butterfly garden and a pond on campus.  They saw three frogs, while we saw none, even though we have plenty of frogs around here.  We figured that it hasn’t been wet enough lately for them to come around, and our squares were located in the drier areas of our school grounds.  We did see lizards, which is one type of animal they did not mention seeing.  We have lots of lizards here in Florida. 

They did not see any paper or litter at all.  They said that they have a very clean environment around their school.  Sadly, one of our groups did record seeing a candy wrapper, even though our school just won the beautification award in our town for being so clean.  That’s one non-living thing we don’t want to see, although it did help us to better realize how there are good non-living things and some that are not so good.

Below, you will find some examples of our drawings and charts we made to record our findings