Squirrels and their Habitats Unit Study

This Squirrels and their Habitats Nature Unit Study is a great way to get your younger children outside and learning all about red and gray squirrels, types of trees, and nature!

Young children are fascinated by nature! This Squirrels and their Habitats unit study will teach young children about the wonders of the natural world of squirrels and the trees all around them through the simple text and beautiful illustrations.

Read about squirrels and then complete the daily activities from the list below. You and your kids can go on a nature walk to look for squirrels in trees and the other things in the book several times during the week.

Resources for Learning More about Squirrels and their Habitat

Required Library List

Miss Suzy by Miriam Young (illustrated by Arnold Loebel who wrote the Frog and Toad series)

Fun with Nature by Boring, Burns, and Dendy *This is one of a series of nature books that I highly recommend for your home library. All six of my kids poured over them repeatedly.

The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel by Thorton W. Burgess This book is also available on Open Library and Hoopla.

Optional Books and Resources

The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin (Peter Rabbit) by Beatrix Potter Also find it for free on Open Library

We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt by Steve Metzger Also find it for free on Open Library

Danger Comes to Squirrel Valley by Dorothy Galde Note: this book is Out of Print, but if you can find a copy, it’s a great read-aloud chapter book about the struggles and triumphs of a family of squirrels that reveal spiritual and moral truths. Due to the mention of the demise of some of the valley animals, you may need to skip some parts for your especially sensitive younger listeners.

Squirrels Facts

Squirrels store food for winter video for younger kiddos

Gray Squirrel Animal Fact Files for older kiddos

Activities for Learning about Squirrels and their Habitat

Read Miss Suzy on Day 1 and then again on Day 2. Read 4 or 5 chapters (they are very short) of Chatterer the Red Squirrel on Days 1 through 5.

Day 1: Using the clues in the book Miss Suzy, identify what kind of squirrel she is. Read about Gray Squirrels in the book, Fun with Nature (page 163). Use the notebooking pages for Gray Squirrels in the Squirrels Unit Study bundle from the HHO Shop.

Older students may want to further research squirrels and their classification. They are in the Animal Kingdom, Chordata Phylum, Mammal Class, and Rodent Order. Introduce what these terms mean and how they apply to a squirrel. Notebooking printables for this are included in the Squirrels Unit Study bundle from the HHO Shop.

Identify the kind of tree Miss Suzy lived in. Read about oak trees on pages 254-255 in Fun With Nature. You can also mention that much of Miss Suzy’s food and dishes came from the acorns of the oak tree. There are over 400 types of oak trees. Use the Missouri Conservation site to help you identify which common oak trees are in your area by examining their acorns, leaves, and bark.

Day 2: Using the clues in the book Miss Suzy, identify what kind of squirrels took over Miss Suzy’s home. Read about Red Squirrels in the book, Fun with Nature (page 165). Use the notebooking pages for Red Squirrels in the Squirrels Unit Study bundle in the HHO Shop.

Identify the kind of branch Miss Suzy used to make a broom. Read about maple trees on pages 252-253 of Fun With Nature. Have your kiddos used a straw broom before? My kids like to help clean up small messes with a dust pan and small hand broom–it’s great for hand-eye coordination!

Learn more about maple trees and the maple syrup we get from them in our Little House Sugar Snow Unit Study

Day 3: Go for a walk in a wooded area, with Fun With Nature in hand, and see how many different trees you can identify. This will be easier in the summer when the trees have all of their leaves, but still possible other seasons of the year.

Complete a tree investigation nature journal (these printables are the “easier” pages from our Trees Investigation Nature Journal and are included in the Squirrels bundle from the HHO Shop).

If it’s Autumn while you are enjoying this unit, you may also want to complete the free Fall Leaves Nature Study for a print-and-go activity (included in the Squirrels bundle from the HHO Shop).

You may wish to use our A Tree is Nice Literature Unit Study to learn more about trees.

Collect leaves to make rubbings, and help the student assemble a My Leaf Book using the printables in the Squirrels Unit Study bundle. Print as many copies of the second page as you need to create additional pages in your child’s My Leaf Book.

Be sure to save the “best” leaves for tomorrow’s activity.

Day 4: Collect nuts found during nature walk and make food balls for squirrels by rolling nuts in peanut butter and hanging from trees or set on the railing of a deck outside.

Using the leaves you collected yesterday, press and dry various leaves, and then make a pretty table place mat by mounting the leaves between two sheets of clear contact paper or laminate with a laminating machine.

Day 5: Go on a squirrel hunt, looking for squirrels, nests, or other signs such as tracks or scat. Refer to page 202 of Fun With Nature.

If you read the book, We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt, see if you and your child can make up your own version of the story, “We’re Going on a Squirrel Hunt”.

After you finish reading the book, The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel, complete the Chatterer the Red Squirrel summary worksheet.

Check out our Early American Frontier Unit about Davy Crockett to learn more about squirrels. Look under STEAM > Science

For Further Autumn Study

Read: Animals in Winter by Henrietta Bancroft (also on Hoopla)
Discuss how squirrels store up nuts to eat during the cold winter months. Discuss how other animals survive winter (i.e. hibernation, migration, hunting)

Read: Plants in Winter by Joanna Cole or Plants in Winter by Jenny F. VanVoorst (also on Open Library) Discuss why trees lose their leaves, and how other plants survive the winter.

More Ideas for Learning about Squirrels and Woodland Forests