Features
School-agers: Learn about the buffalo

by Barbara A. Langham

By the time children reach kindergarten or first grade, they often have some familiarity with the buffalo, a grand symbol of the American West. Families living in Texas and the western states—or traveling in the region on summer vacation—may see buffalo in state and national parks, on wildlife refuges, or on ranches.

The buffalo makes an excellent curriculum unit for school-age children in summer programs. It’s all the more fitting because 2016 marks the 100th anniversary of the creation of the National Park Service, a player in saving the buffalo from extinction. Moreover, in April Congress declared the bison the National Mammal.

Is it buffalo or bison?
The Lakota Sioux called the animal Tatanka, a word that means spirit, and indeed the buffalo was so vital that it was considered sacred. When Europeans came to North and South America, they gave it other names based on their experience with similar animals. Spanish explorers referred to them as cattle, vacas de tierra, or cows of the country.

The word buffalo is believed to have been used by English settlers. The term may have been a modification of les boeufs, a name that French explorers gave oxen or cattle. Lewis and Clark, on their historic voyage of the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase from 1804 to 1806, called them buffalo.

Scientists say the buffalo is technically the American bison and belongs to the same family of mammals as domestic cattle. Other species of bison are found in Canada (wood bison) as well as in Europe (wisent, pronounced vee-zent). True buffalo are the cape buffalo of Africa and the water buffalo of Southeast Asia.

A review of literature and media indicates that buffalo is the vernacular or ordinary use, and bison is preferred in scientific contexts and in references to the animal’s meat as food.

Planning a buffalo unit
An excellent way to start a unit on the buffalo is a field trip to a park, refuge, or ranch. Be aware that the most likely parks and refuges with buffalo are in the Plains states. In Texas, for example, Caprock Canyons State Park (100 miles southeast of Amarillo) has a herd of 100 head, and the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge has a band of 25 head. For a state-by-state list of the best places to see buffalo, see http://animaltourism.com/animals/buffalo.php.

Note that it’s unusual to find buffalo in zoos. That’s because the animal’s natural habitat is expansive prairie. Among the prominent zoos with bison are the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C., and the Bronx Zoo in New York. In Texas, you can see buffalo at the Caldwell Zoo in Tyler and the Amarillo Zoo. (The Abilene Zoo once had seven buffalo, but they were moved to a private ranch in 2010.)

Approximately 5,000 U.S. ranches and farms raise buffalo, primarily to sell as a healthier food alternative to beef. Most of these animals range free and feed on grass, and often are not given growth hormones and antibiotics. Moreover, over the years ranchers have carefully bred animals with gentle traits, in effect domesticating them. For a state-by-state list of ranches that raise bison, see www.eatbisonmeat.com/webapp/p/9/buffalo-ranches.

If a field trip to see live buffalo is not possible, consider showing a video. An excellent film about buffalo as well as other wild animals of the Plains, such as grizzly bears and prairie dogs, is National Geographic’s American Serengeti (2010). (Serengeti refers to a vast grassland in the East African country of Tanzania.)

Many videos on Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming will include images of buffalo because this park has two herds with an estimated total of 4,900 head on 2.2 million acres. According to the National Park Service, Yellowstone is also the only place in the United States where the animal has lived continuously since prehistoric times.

Remember to preview any video before showing it to make sure it’s appropriate for your particular group of children. This way you will also know when to fast forward beyond irrelevant material.

Another important visual resource is art, especially frontier paintings and bronze sculpture by Charles M. Russell, Frederic Remington, and George Catlin. The Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth has an extensive collection of their work, which you can view on its website: www.cartermuseum.org/remington-and-russell/artworks?search=buffalo&artist=1636&=Apply.

A website with lots of buffalo art is an online gallery, Great Big Canvas at www.greatbigcanvas.com/category/wildlife/bison-and-buffalo/?gclid=CInmno-6mMwCFRIoaQodwDMGJA. Note especially the portraits of buffalo in brilliant hues of blue, red, and green.

Russell, Remington, and Catlin were preceded thousands of years earlier by prehistoric people who depicted the buffalo and other phenomena on rock surfaces, inside caves, and on animal hides. One important U.S. site is Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument in Utah. It’s called “Newspaper Rock” because the images seem to report events of the times.

Dating further back are prehistoric images in Europe, including Altamira Cave in northern Spain (http://en.museodealtamira.mcu.es/Prehistoria_y_Arte/la_cueva.html), Niaux (pronounced new) Cave in southwestern France (www.bradshawfoundation.com/niaux/), and Lascaux (pronounced las-ko) Cave in southwestern France (www.bradshawfoundation.com/lascaux/).

In recent history, the buffalo’s image has appeared in almost every conceivable form, from flags, throw pillows, and T-shirts to keychains, stamps, and money. For example, the U.S. Mint coined nickels with a buffalo on one side from 1913 to l938 and again in 2005, as well as quarters honoring Kansas in 2005 and North Dakota in 2006.

Moreover, the buffalo is the state symbol of Wyoming, Kansas, and Oklahoma and is featured in the logo of the U.S. Department of the Interior and the University of Buffalo in Buffalo, N.Y. It’s also the school mascot of universities and schools too numerous to mention.

In addition to visual resources, gather books about the buffalo, such as those listed in the resources at the end of this article. Several books aimed at older readers provide instructive photos and illustrations.

Activities
With information about the buffalo so readily available, the challenge is to plan activities that will most interest and excite children. Consider starting with a concept map, writing buffalo in the center and branches extending out with words such as the Great Plains, ranching, Yellowstone, antelope, elk, hunting, Wild West, and Buffalo Soldiers, for example. Consider which branches will be most interesting to your children, and plan accordingly. Suggested activities appear below.

If you plan a related unit on Native Americans, be aware that America’s indigenous people varied in lifestyle from one tribe or nation to another. These included the Arika, Blackfeet Nation, Cheyenne, Hidatsu, Kiowa, Mandan, Sioux Nation, and Teton.

Show and tell: National park vacations
Inform parents about your buffalo unit and invite any who plan to visit a park with buffalo to share photos with your class. If there’s enough interest, consider extending buffalo activities to celebrate the centennial of the National Park Service.

Because park dates can be confusing, keep in mind that President Woodrow Wilson signed the National Park Service into law in 1916. Yosemite had already come under protection in 1864 and Yellowstone in 1872. Yosemite was originally administered by the state of California, but Yellowstone needed federal management because it was located in Wyoming and Montana territories. Yellowstone is thus considered the nation’s—and the world’s—first national park.

The creation of the National Park Service in 1916 provided for a new federal bureau in the U.S. Department of the Interior to collectively manage Yellowstone, Yosemite (made a national park in 1890), and 33 other parks that had been created by that time, as well as those that would be created in the future.

Invite all parents to share buffalo images they may have at home, such as an art print, a T-shirt, or even a buffalo nickel. Note that a toy buffalo figure is available for $6.99 from Animal World, an online gift store specializing in toy figures, stuffed animals, and other products at http://anwo.com/store/buffalo_toy_bison.htm.

Science: What’s the hump for?
Seeing a live buffalo or watching a video is likely to raise many questions. Place books and photos of buffalo in the science center, and encourage children to search for answers. Include a diagram that names the parts of a buffalo, such as fur, hooves, hump, horns, head, eyes, ears, nose, and teeth.

Read aloud a nonfiction book (7- and 8-year-olds may be able to take turns reading aloud), such as The Buffalo by Sabrina Crewe. Read about two-thirds (20 pages) of the book, or as long as children stay interested. Go back and review the pictures, asking questions that will elicit basic facts, such as the following:
Buffalo are large wild animals, related to cows.
Some people call buffalo by another name, bison.
Adult males are called bulls, and babies are called calves.
A calf feeds on its mother’s milk.
As the calf grows older, it eats grass and drinks water.
Calves start to grow horns when they are 6 or 7 weeks old.
When the calf is a few months old, it starts to grow a hump.
The hump is made of bone and muscle and helps support the heavy head.
In winter, buffalo grow extra fur to keep warm.
They use their big heads to plow through snow to find grass and roots to eat.
By summer, they lose most of their thick fur and cool off by swimming in rivers.
Buffalo roll in the dust to rub off bugs and stop bug bites from itching.
In summer, bulls butt heads and fight over females.
The winning bull mates with the females.
It takes nine months after mating for a calf to be born.
Buffalo live in groups called herds.
Herds need big open spaces where they can roam wild and graze on grass.
A bear or pack of wolves can attack and kill a young or weak buffalo.
When scared by something, the buffalo start to run.
A herd of running buffalo is a stampede that sounds like thunder.

Social studies: Back from extinction
In another session, if children are still interested, read a book, such as Thunder on the Plains by Ken Robbins, that describes how Native Americans depended on the buffalo for their livelihood, and how it almost became extinct. Review basic facts such as the following:
Long ago, millions of buffalo roamed the American prairie.
Native Americans depended on the buffalo for nearly everything—food, clothing, shelter, tools, and items for religious ceremonies.
People began killing the buffalo for the hides, to make way for farms and railroads, and sometimes just for sport.
By the late 1800s, only a few buffalo were left.
Native Americans had to give up their way of life.
The government passed laws to stop the killing.
Today buffalo live in parks, protected areas called refuges, and ranches.

Engage children in conversation by asking questions, such as, “What did the buffalo mean to Native Americans?” “What happened to the buffalo when white people came?” “What happened to Native Americans?” “How was the buffalo saved?” “How would you feel if no buffalo were left?”

Writing: B is for Buffalo
The letter B is one of the more difficult alphabet letters for kindergartners to learn to write. Provide opportunities to practice by writing the letter in sand, shaping the letter with yarn or ribbon, or curving ropes of play dough.

Write Buffalo and Bison on the top line of a sheet of lined paper. Make several copies for the writing center. Invite children to practice writing the two words on the other lines of the page.

Invite first and second graders to complete a sentence, such as “A buffalo is….”

Math: How big is big?
Help children get a more tangible idea of a buffalo’s massive size. An adult male stands about 6 feet tall at the shoulder and 12 feet long, and it weighs about 2,000 pounds—about as much as a Volkswagen Beetle. This activity will require the teacher to prepare in advance, but it can extend over several days.

Here’s what you need:
roll of strong art paper (available at craft stores)
roll of 2-inch wide masking tape
pencil
wide black marker
yardstick or measuring tape
outline of buffalo www.pinterest.com/willemadmiraal/buffalos/
color markers
safety scissors

1. Cut two 12½-foot lengths of paper from the roll of strong art paper. Tape the two lengths of paper together so that the paper measures about 7 by 12½ feet.
2. Use the pencil to outline the shape of a buffalo on the paper. Darken the outline with the marker.
3. Cut out the buffalo along the darkened outline, or allow children to cut out the buffalo with safety scissors.
4. Spread the buffalo shape on the classroom floor, and encourage the children to decorate it with the markers. Instruct them to remove their shoes if they wish to sit or lie on the buffalo shape.
5. Encourage them to measure how many children it takes to equal the height and then the length of the buffalo shape.
6. If space is available, hang the buffalo shape on the wall. Encourage the children to compare their height to the buffalo’s height.

Extended activity: Invite children to create a Plains mural on a long piece of butcher paper, drawing buffalo, elk, prairie dogs, and rabbits amid ankle-high grass.

Math and science: How much does a buffalo eat?
Help children understand why buffalo need a vast grassland to live. A buffalo drinks about 5 gallons of water and eats about 25 pounds of grass, twigs, and weeds a day. Using bags of birdseed is safer than grass and weeds, which can be full of ticks, mosquitoes, and ants. And it allows young school-aged children to delight in a sensory activity.

Here’s what you need:
5 plastic tubs (about 4 to 6 inches in height)
5 scoops
5 funnels
5 measuring cups
5 measuring spoons
brush and dustpan (for cleaning up spills)
5 five-pound bags of plain birdseed
bathroom scales

1. Place one tub on a scale, and instruct the children to help each other place one 5-pound bag of birdseed at a time in the tub. Ask the children to read the total number of pounds each time a bag is placed on the scale.
2. Once the scale reads 25 pounds, inform the children that this is the amount of food a buffalo eats each day. To give the children a sense of what 25 pounds weighs, ask the children to assist you in removing the birdseed from the scales. You may need to do this more than once so that all the interested children can experience what it feels like.
3. Empty one 5-pound bag of birdseed into each tub. Set limits such as, “Birdseed stays in tubs.”
4. Encourage children to explore the properties of the birdseed by measuring, pouring, and digging, for example.
5. At the end of the activity period, store the birdseed in closed container.

Extended activity: Invite children to fill 5 one-gallon milk jugs with water and weigh them. Empty the jugs into tubs for children to explore, and end the activity by watering plants.

Art: Make a soap petroglyph
Set up a laptop displaying Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument at http://climb-utah.com/Moab/newspaper.htm. The site offers close-up viewing that will allow children to identify buffalo among the petroglyphs. Petroglyphs are images carved or chipped into rock. Pictographs, by contrast, are painted. Invite children to make a petroglyph by carving or chipping an image in a bar of soap.

Here’s what you need:
soap bars, one for each child (Ivory is less likely to crumble than other brands)
sharpened pencils
plastic knives
old toothbrushes

1. Ask children to identify images of the buffalo on the laptop screen.
2. Invite them to use a sharpened pencil to draw the outline of a buffalo on one side of the soap bar.
3. Use a plastic knife to chisel or scoop out soap inside the outline about ⅛ to ¼ inch deep. Brush out shavings with the toothbrush. The result will be a depressed image in the bar.
4. Encourage children to talk about what they made, and display the bars in the classroom.

Variations: Have children carve around the outside of the outline, to make a raised image on the bar. Invite children to make a pictograph by drawing a buffalo or other symbol on a rock or sidewalk using chalk or paint.

Art: Pictures on buffalo hide
The website of the Idaho Fish and Game Service (https://fishandgame.idaho.gov/public/docs/wildlifeExpress/WE_bisonActivities.pdf) contains an activity guide, “Picture Writing,” for school-age children. It includes a picture dictionary of Native American symbols, a diagram showing how tribes used virtually all parts of a buffalo, (tendons as bow strings, for example), and a traceable outline of a buffalo mask. The activity below was adapted from one on the site.

Here’s what you need:
brown paper sack, one for each child
sample rock art symbols taken from the website
pencil
marker

1. Have children tear open the paper sack along the seam lines so that the sack lies flat.
2. Crumple the paper into a ball and unfold. Repeat about 25 times until the paper is soft, like leather, to represent a buffalo hide.
3. Invite them to write a sentence using the rock art symbols, using a pencil first and retracing with a marker.
4. Invite children to share their writing with the class.

Variations: Invite children to draw a pictograph of a buffalo on brown paper and fill in with paint. Copy the buffalo mask from the website and encourage children to color it or glue on cotton and string or yarn to represent fur and hair.

Art and literacy: 21st century picture dictionary
Using Native American symbols as a starting point, encourage children to create their own picture dictionary.

Here’s what you need:
picture dictionary of Native American symbols from the website of the Idaho Fish and Game Service
pencils
markers
paper
stapler

1. Remind children that Native Americans created petroglyphs and pictographs of the people, places, and things that were part of their daily lives. Brainstorm with the children some of the things that are part of their daily lives, such as computers, cell phones, DVDs, TV, movies, and cars. Write a list of these words, and post the list in view of the children.
2. Provide children with markers and papers. Encourage them to draw a pictograph for each item on the list.
3. Assist children in stapling their pictures together to form a dictionary.
4. Invite children to share their dictionaries with each other, pointing out similarities and differences.

Extended activity: Encourage children to write a story using the picture words from their dictionaries, and share their stories with each other. Encourage them to write their story on a cave wall (the inside of a large cardboard box).

Cooking: Pemmican on the plains
Compared to other meats, bison is expensive. (In April, an Austin market sold ground bison at $9.97 a pound and ribeye steak for $19.95). You might be able to persuade a local meat market manager or chef to demonstrate cooking a bison burger and offer pieces to children to sample.
Native Americans typically cut the meat into strips and hung it on racks to dry. Properly dried, the meat could last for months or even years. They would eat the dried strips or cut them up and mix with fat and berries make pemmican, a rough equivalent of a granola bar.

To give children a hint of what it might be like to eat dried meat, consider buying a bit of beef jerky. A 1.25-ounce size of a popular store brand cost $2.58. Jerky can be extremely tough and chewy, so instead of children tasting it, let them see and feel it, and discard after use.

Movement: “Goin’ with a Bison Herd”
(Inspired by “Goin’ on a Bear Hunt”)

Directions: Chant this song indoors or on the playground. Tramp feet throughout, changing the motion on the last line of each verse. The teacher says a line, and the children repeat, as indicated in italics.

Chorus
Goin’ with a bison herd
Goin’ with a bison herd
Roamin’ on the range
Roamin’ on the range
Soundin’ like thunder
Soundin’ like thunder
What a beautiful day!
What a beautiful day!

Uh-oh
Uh-oh
Grass
Grass
Tough, green grass
Tough, green grass
Can’t go over it
Can’t go over it
Can’t go under it
Can’t go under it
Gotta go through it
Gotta go through it
Swish, swash. Swish, swash. Swish swash!

Chorus

Uh-oh
Uh-oh
A river
A river
A deep, cold river
A deep, cold river
Can’t go over it
Can’t go over it
Can’t go under it
Can’t go under it
Gotta go through it
Gotta go through it
Splish, splosh. Splish spolsh. Splish splosh!

Chorus

Uh-oh
Uh-oh
Holes
Holes
Prairie dog holes
Prairie dog holes
Can’t go over ‘em
Can’t go over ‘em
Can’t go under ‘em
Can’t go under ‘em
Gotta go through ‘em
Gotta go through ‘em
Stumble trip. Stumble trip. Stumble trip.

Chorus

Uh-oh
Uh-oh
A rainstorm
A rainstorm
A blinding, howling rainstorm
A blinding, howling rainstorm
Can’t go over it
Can’t go over it
Can’t go under it
Can’t go under it
Gotta go through it
Gotta go through it
Slug, slog. Slug, slog. Slug slog.

Chorus

Uh-oh
Uh-oh
Sun’s going down
Sun’s going down
Time for bed
Time for bed
Throw ourselves down
Throw ourselves down
Roll in the dust
Roll in the dust
Kick feet up high
Kick feet up high
Grunt and twist
Grunt and twist
Feels so good
Feels so good
Stars overhead
Stars overhead
Now to sleep
Now to sleep
Snore, snore. Snore, snore. Snore, snore.

Music: “Home on the Range”
Teach this song to children, perhaps accompanied by piano or guitar. Discuss unfamiliar words. A zephyr, for example, is a gentle breeze, and a curlew is a bird.

O give me a home where the buffalo roam
Where the deer and the antelope play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Chorus
Home, home on the range
Where the deer and the antelope play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Where the air is so pure, and the zephyrs so free
The breezes so balmy and light
I would not exchange my home on the range
For all of the cities so bright.

Chorus

How often at night when the heavens are bright
With the light from the glittering stars
Have I stood there amazed and asked as I gazed
If their glory exceeds that of ours.

Chorus

I love these wild flowers in this dear land of ours
The curlew I love to hear cry
And I love the white rocks and the antelope flocks
That graze on the mountain slopes high.

Chorus

I would not exchange my home on the range
Where the deer and the antelope play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

For information on the origin of this song, see the Kansas Historical Society’s website at www.kshs.org/kansapedia/home-on-the-range/17165.

Resources
Barnett, Tracy. 2002. The Buffalo Soldiers. Broomall, Pa.: Mason Crest Publishers. An important account, aimed at older school-agers, of the bravery and skill of the U.S. Army’s all-black units on the western frontier from the 1860s to the 1890s, with further mention of exploits up to 1948 when the military was integrated.
Crewe, Sabrina. 1998. The Buffalo. Austin: Steck-Vaughn. An excellent introduction for primary school children with colorful photos and illustrations.
Gish, Melissa. 2011. Bison (part of the Living Wild series). Mankato, Minn.: Creative Education. Ostensibly for youth, but content and vocabulary more suitable to an older audience.
Hirsch, Rebecca. 2012. Buffalo Migration. Mankato, Minn.: The Child’s World. A short 30-page book focused on the migration of buffalo in and out of Yellowstone National Park.
Marrin, Albert. 2006. Saving the Buffalo. New York: Scholastic. Includes historic black-and-white photos and paintings by George Catlin.
National Geographic. 2010. American Serengeti. (50-minute DVD). Available online at Amazon.com, $14.99, and at public libraries.
Patent, Dorothy Hinshaw. 2006. The Buffalo and the Indians: A Shared Destiny. New York: Clarion/Houghton Mifflin. An excellent explanation of the buffalo’s relationship to Native Americans, aimed at ages 10-12.
Robbins, Ken. 2001. Thunder on the Plains: The Story of the American Buffalo. New York: Simon & Schuster. Includes pages on the animal’s significance to Native Americans and its near extinction.
Vernick, Audrey. 2010. Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten? New York: Balzer & Bray/HarperCollins. A delightfully funny cartoon book no doubt intended to lessen the fear of children who are starting kindergarten.

References
American Prairie Reserve. No date. “Bison Restoration,” www.americanprairie.org/project/bison-restoration.
Izadl, Elaine. April 29, 2016. “Say hello to our first national mammal,” The Washington Post, how-the-bison-once-nearing-extinction-lived-to-become-americas-national-mammal.
The Lewis & Clark Rediscovery Project. No date. Buffalo, www.webpages.uidaho.edu/L3/ShowOneObjectSiteID30ObjectID125.html.
National Park Service, No date. “Yellowstone Bison,” www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/bison.htm.
Native American Netroots. Sept. 11, 2012. “Ancient America: Eating a Buffalo,” http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/1377.
Nexstar Broadcasting Inc, Nov. 30, 2010. “Abilene Zoo Says ‘Bye Bye’ to Bison,” www.bigcountryhomepage.com/news/krbc-news/abilene-zoo-says-bye-bye-to-bison.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Learning about Bison Classroom Activities. No date. www.tpwd.texas.gov/education/resources/resources/lesson-plans/terrestrial-ecology/bison/learning-about-bison-classroom-activities.