New Year, New In-Class Activities
As many of you readers may know, a large portion of the SOLE program centers around in-class learning. The SOLE team provides a variety of in-class programming for our 4th graders across the state. Currently we have a choice of six programs: Cookie Mining, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Senses, Animal Adaptations, and Tracking like a Fur Trapper. Currently we are phasing out Ecosystems ad Endangered species. But, we have recently revamped our Tracking like a Fur Trapper in-class program!
Most schools will typically choose Cookie Mining or Animal Adaptations. However, Tracking like a Fur Trapper has been recently worked on and a new activity has been added.
This past week, the SOLE team visited Corwin International Magnet School for a trip back to the past to learn about fur trapping and trading.
We started off with learning about reason why European fur trappers were interested in moving to Colorado in the 1800s. For those of you who are uncertain, the main reason was for beaver and bison fur! Both fur's are valuable and allowed for trappers to trade pelts for money and other goods. The native people of Colorado were also trapping beavers and bison before the 1800s, but just to a lesser degree.
After learning a little about fur trapping and trading and the value of beavers, the students were able to form companies and attempt to trap and trade beavers and bison depending on different incentives/markets in Europe. The students of Corwin International loved getting to "trap" beavers and bison, and understand the difficulty of making a profit with limited resources.
For those SOLE teachers out there, we would love to present any of our programs (including fur trapping and tracking) to your 4th graders! All of our programs are unique and hits with the students
