Third, Fourth, & Fifth Grade Programs
All school programs are offered at no cost. These free programs are designed to support Michigan academic standards.
School Field Learning Sequence
Nature Detectives
New to our program offerings for the 2026–2027 school year are School Field Learning Sequences. Each sequence is three visits across fall, winter, and spring, designed as a single experience rather than three separate field trips. Winter programs are built to be flexible, taking place in the field on snowshoes or in the classroom, to allow for uncertain weather or for groups without winter gear. By the third visit students stop managing the newness and start paying attention to their surroundings. They recognize what they found in the fall and connect it to what is in front of them now.
Students in a program sequence design a wood cookie name tag on the first visit. We hold them between visits and hand them back each time the group returns, and students keep theirs at the end of the spring program.
Booking a sequence means one conversation and a set of dates held for your year.
Fall: Dirt Makers
Winter: Winter Tracks and Signs
Spring: Life in the Water
Standard: 3-LS4-3 Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
Third through fifth graders want to go find out for themselves, to collect, sort, and argue about what the evidence means. Nature Detectives hands them three different bodies of evidence: the soil and decomposers underfoot in fall, the tracks and signs animals leave in winter snow, and the living things in the water in spring. Each visit asks the same question in a new medium: what happened here, and how do we know? Students return practiced at gathering evidence and defending a conclusion from it.
Wilderness Survival (Grades 4–5 alternative · sequence only)
Fall: Wilderness Survival: Shelter
Winter: Wilderness Survival: Fire
Spring: Wilderness Survival: Water
Standards:
3-5-ETS1-1 Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
3-5-ETS1-3 Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.
Fourth and fifth graders are ready for tasks with real consequences and real standards for success. Wilderness Survival gives them three: engineering a shelter out of forest materials that will actually stand up and hold the people inside it, making their own fire in the cold of winter, and finding and treating water in the spring. Nothing here is hypothetical. A shelter either holds or it collapses, which makes revision the obvious next step rather than an assignment. Students return with practical competence, a tolerance for first attempts that fail, and a closer read of the landscape.
One-off programs
These programs can also be booked as single visits.
Roll over logs and meet vitally essential members of the ecosystem, the decomposers! Learn more about the variety of critters whose job it is to transform decaying material into rich soil through observations and hands-on learning.
5-LS2-1 Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
Using reference guides and field equipment, students will have the opportunity to collect and identify aquatic insects. Through careful observation, we will gain an appreciation for the diversity of life found in freshwater. Sketching and discussion will help students better understand animal adaptations and how aquatic life determines water quality.
3-LS4-3 Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
Students explore the relationships between predators and prey in local ecosystems by observing animal tracks, scat, and skulls. Through hands-on activities and guided discussion, they analyze how adaptations, population changes, and environmental factors influence survival and balance within food webs.
5-LS2-1 Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
Students become plant survival experts as they explore roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and seeds. They discover how plant structures help them survive, grow, and thrive in different habitats. We will also take a closer look at plant adaptations and students will design their own plants adapted to different habitats.
4-LS1-1 Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
Students use maps and compasses to represent and analyze the spatial distribution of landforms, water features, and ecosystems in their local environment. Through hands-on navigation activities, students apply evidence-based reasoning to understand how geographic tools help people describe and solve problems related to Earth’s systems.
4-ESS2-2 Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth’s features.
Searching for tracks is one of the most exciting winter activities. Snow is an excellent surface for tracking an animal and learning about its behavior. Traveling by snowshoe, this program introduces students to standard tools and techniques for identifying signs of wildlife in winter. All students will learn how to identify tracks, track patterns, and signs animals leave behind.
3-LS4-3 Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.