The students in Mallary Burke’s preschool class didn’t have to travel very far for their first-ever school field trip. No buses or permission slips were required. They simply walked down the hallway to the multipurpose room at Lincoln School.

But the students wouldn’t have seen as many creatures if they had spent the entire day in a forest. That’s because Jan Ward, Environmental Educator for the Lake County Forest Preserve, brought the wildlife to them.

From stuffed animals (a robin and a chipmunk) to live animals (turtles, a toad and a snake) Ward taught the children the difference between reptiles, amphibians and mammals and let them meet the animals up close.

Ward started by reading a short book, “One Frog Sang,” then showed them real (stuffed) animals including a robin, chipmunk and sunfish, gently explaining that they weren’t alive anymore.

She then asked the children to feel the bumps on their own backs - their spine - and held out a large turtle shell with the spine on the inside. She also showed them the skeleton of a frog. “They may be squishy, but they still have bones,” she explained.

As expected, the living creatures really grabbed their attention. The children pointed excitedly as a turtle tried to climb out of its plastic box. But they were a bit tentative to touch the skin of a five-foot fox snake who busied itself crawling on Ward’s arms and legs.

“He’s the star of the show,” Ward announced when she brought him out of his container. Most of the students were a bit nervous about touching a live snake. But as a few gently touched the back of the snake, a few more asked for a turn - as long as the snake’s head wasn’t too close to them.

The students had just finished a six-week unit on trees - what grows in trees and who lives in trees. The program with animals connected to that unit and served as an end-of-unit celebration, Burke said.

“I was really impressed with the amount of questions the students had,” Burke said. “They were really interested and they love science terminology.”

The children learned that snakes smell with their tongues and toads breathe through their skin. They also showed concern when Ward told them the salamander she wanted to bring was sick and couldn’t join them.

Ward presented to two classes on Dec. 3 while her colleagues from the Forest Preserve did the same for other preschool classes, including a bilingual class.