Students at Donegal Primary School (DPS) learned some new vocabulary words and discovered what animals do to prepare for the winter, all while meeting a local furry celebrity when Mount Joy Minnie spent the day at the school.

After making her weather prediction (an early spring), Minnie then visited DPS on Feb. 2, greeting students and sharing information in a program presented by Heritage Creek Farm & Education Center.

It was all part of an opportunity to combine local lore with scientific facts.

"We want to take the narrative of what Minnie predicts and take it over into the domestic and wild animals that we have on the farm," explained Cindi Hughes, who led the program with Natasha Herr. They were joined by Minnie and her handler for the program, Michele Emenheiser of the Mount Joy Area Chamber of Commerce.

"There are a lot of signs we see on the farm that tell us spring is coming," Hughes told the students. "And there are a lot of ways animals adapt to winter. Some decide they're going to hunker down here in Pennsylvania, and some decide they're going to go on vacation to somewhere warmer until winter is over."

Hughes asked the students if they knew what various words meant when it came to animal behavior, including hibernation, torpor, migration and brumation. She also defined terms associated with Minnie and her prediction, including prognostication and proclamation.

Using puppets to demonstrate, Hughes and Herr shared facts about some of the animals that live on the Mount Joy farm.

"Groundhogs spend the winter cozy underground, under the snow to stay warm," Herr told the assembly. "Eventually, they are ready to come out and ready for spring, just like we are."

Explaining what hibernation is, Hughes said, "Some animals take a long winter's nap. Can you imagine sleeping for five to six months?"

Students learned that reptiles and amphibians experience brumation rather than hibernation, that torpor refers to a sort of hybrid hibernation, where animals sleep and wake throughout the winter, and that some creatures have unique winter behaviors.

"Some frogs have superhero qualities," Hughes said. "They can freeze solid throughout the winter and then emerge in the spring."

Minnie - also a puppet - held each of her puppet peers as Hughes and Herr told the children about the animals.

"What shape do Canada geese fly in? Show me with your arms," Herr said, while the young audience members lifted their arms into a V shape.

Hughes explained how monarch butterflies survive the winter by flying to Mexico, returning to Pennsylvania when the temperatures rise. She told the students about a chipmunk that lives on her porch who hides away to stay warm during the cold months.

Herr explained how animals such as the goats on the farm get ready for the chilly weather.

"We don't have thick skin and fur, so what do we do when we're cold?" she asked the kids. "We put on coats, gloves, hats and scarves, but our animals don't have that. Instead, they grow thicker coats of fur to stay warm."

Hughes described how, as the weather warms up, the goats will begin to rub up against a fence on the farm, scratching off their winter coats. Birds will then pick up pieces of the fur and use them to build nests.

After the program, students said goodbye to Minnie with hugs and high fives.

"I want the kids to be observers," Hughes said of the program's focus. "I want to be able to connect children to the world around us through agriculture and the environment."

At her farm, Hughes presents a variety of hands-on programs covering topics including land stewardship, STEM, environmental literacy, fiber arts and more.

Her DPS program tied into new Pennsylvania state science standards, called STEELS -  science, technology, engineering, environmental literacy and sustainability.

She hoped the children left the DPS program with a new understanding of how farm animals prepare for winter, how their behavior indicates spring is coming and how much we all rely on farmers.

"When you have eggs for breakfast or you drink milk at lunch or you wear wool socks to stay warm, you can thank a farmer," she told the kids. "It's not easy to be a farmer, especially in the winter, but what farmers do for us is so important."