Beavers are such an amazing species! Did you know they are a keystone species? I enjoyed learning about beavers while planning this award so much. Hopefully, you and your Eager Beavers will also enjoy learning about Beavers.
I have two options for the Beavers Award. We do things a little differently in my club when it comes to Eager Beavers. Just like with Little Lambs, we offer it in one or two year options. Depending on the age of an entering Adventurer and the age they will start first grade, they may do one year of Little Lambs and Eager Beavers, two years of each, or one year of one and two years of the other. We complete a modified version of IA (Investiture Achievement) requirements each year. By adding in a few Florida Conference awards, we keep the repeats of awards to a minimum.
Beavers seems like such an important award (for Eager Beavers) that I felt we really needed to teach it both years. First year beavers will receive the official award patch and second year beavers receive the Florida Conference version. If you only teach this award to a group of adventurers once, take a look at both versions, and either pick the version you like best or pick and choose from both sets of activities to best fit your needs.
Story: Meet a Baby Beaver
Fulfills Requirements # 3, 6, 8, 9
Meet a Baby Beaver by Heather E. Schwartz is filled with photographs of beavers. The text to picture ratio is ideal for Eager Beavers, and the babies are adorable! Check your local library for this and other similar books.
Craft: Make a Beaver’s Lodge
Fulfills Requirements # 7, 10
Wanting an activity that was completely different from last year’s beaver craft, I searched for ideas that didn’t use play dough. I was inspired by Ayan’s Beaver Lodge Craft at Teacher Mom Plus 3. Unfortunately, her pdf for the craft is no longer available. Fortunately, I have Canva. And I made my own version to share with you! There are two options for this craft. One for those of you with a cutting machine, and a simpler version that doesn’t need those extra pieces. You will need yarn for both options.
This craft will do better printed on cardstock, but I think printer paper will work. You will need the printed picture (use the one with beavers for the simpler option), yarn (brown and tan), glue, and colored pencils/crayons for the simpler version. Print, color, and add the “sticks & twigs” with some glue. I made mine by running my glue stick over the paper (in the areas I needed glue..) and pressed the yarn into the glue. However, I provided both glue sticks and liquid glue to the class so they could use whatever they needed.
Sticker Version
I made stickers for this craft (cut file at the end of the post). Print the picture without beavers. Print and cut the sticker pages on label paper. Other than coloring and adding the stickers to the page, the craft is same.
I printed an enlarged picture of a cross section of a beaver lodge to show the kids so they could see all the parts of a beaver’s home. I found it here. (Scroll down a bit, and click on the picture to print it in landscape.)
Play: A Beaver Kit is Missing!
This activity is from the Eager Beavers Leader’s Guide (page 34). I created beaver kit footprints to hide around the church. We also set up a small obstacle course in our fellowship hall with a couple play tunnels. In small groups, the eager beavers searched for prints to track the missing baby beaver. They searched high and low, through a maze of tunnels, chairs, and tables, up the stairs and around corners until they found the missing beaver kit.
The printable award kit includes full sets of prints, hind feet prints, and front paw prints – when you are tracking an animal, you might be lucky enough to see a full set of four prints together, but you likely won’t all the time. The prints are a bit bigger than life-size – beaver kits have very tiny paws! Although a small stuffed animal beaver would be an ideal way to finish this activity, a picture also works. We chose the picture route – it’s cheaper, easier to store, and works better for multiple groups.
The kids enjoyed this activity, and they especially loved the obstacle course in the fellowship hall. Although you could set this up entirely in your classroom, using more of the church is ideal.
Activity: Beaver & Friends Memory Game
A keystone species is a species that creates an environment around themselves that not only they thrive in, but many other plant and animal species do as well. Beavers are so important for our environment! The Beaver & Friends Memory Game highlights some of the animals, birds, and insects that thrive when they have a beaver family living in the neighborhood. In addition to the game cards, there is a card explaining the importance of beavers as a keystone species, an instruction card, and five alternative game ideas.
There are two options in the printable – one with square corners that will be easy to cut with a paper trimmer and a second option with rounded corners for those who have a cutting machine. There is an optional graphic for the backside of the cards, but you could leave the back blank to save printer ink. I recommend printing these on cardstock and laminating them – if you’d like them to last for multiple years.
I am so excited about this game. I love how it turned out, and I hope you enjoy it too. You can learn more about the game here.
Closing Story: American Beaver
Fulfills Requirements # 1-5
American Beaver (North American Animals) by Megan Borgert-Spaniol is full of color photographs of beavers living and working in their native habitat. This book is full of interesting information about our favorite rodent. With only one to two sentences per page, there is almost a picture for every sentence! This is a great book choice for the Eager Beaver audience. Check your local library!
Learning More about Beavers
At Home with the Beaver: The Story of a Keystone Species by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent is an excellent book for you, the teacher to read as part of your preparation for teaching this award. Although you could read this book to your class, I don’t recommend it. I think it will keep the attention of one kindergartener sitting with their parent, but it may be challenging with a group of five hyper kids. That said, I loved reading this book, I’m so glad I discovered it at the library, and it got me excited to teach this award. I have a new respect for the beaver after reading this book.
Printables and Cut Files
Are you using any of these ideas in your club? Please leave a comment and let me know how it went. I’d love to hear from you!