Wednesday, March 9, 2016

While Celebrating WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH Remember Special Wild Females


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I’ll never forget the day Dr. Doug Smith, director of the Wolf Restoration Project at Yellowstone National Park told me the story of Female 7. She was one of the first wolves set free in Yellowstone in March, 1995. The first in almost seventy years, following a time when people trapped and killed wolves to eliminate this top predator from Yellowstone National Park. 


Finally, people realized, you can’t fool with mother nature. Every animal in an ecosystem has its role. Wolves helped eliminate sick, weak, and old animals keeping populations of grazing animals, like elk and deer, from becoming huge—too big for there to be enough food for them to eat.


What struck me as exciting was that the young wolf scientists called Female 7 didn’t choose to remain part of the pack people artificially created. She immediately set off into the wilderness on her own. Of course, no one knows exactly what she experienced or how she reacted. Family Pack is her story as I imagine it happened. The ending is known and we'll get to that. 













































Family Pack opens with a young female wolf heading off on her own into Yellowstone National Park. There are no other wolves anywhere around. Imagine if you were suddenly in a wilderness where you were the only human. How would you feel about that? What might you find exciting? What might make you feel frightened?


For wolves, the world is given shape and texture as much by scents as by colors and shadows. Close your eyes and have a partner guide you into different rooms of your home. Can you tell where you are just by what you smell? A wolf could!








































Next, close your eyes while your partner cuts or peels an orange, an apple, or a banana and hold it under your nose. Sniff this fruit. Then have your partner hide the mystery fruit so you can’t see it when you open your eyes. Use crayons or paint to color a piece of paper, sharing your impressions of this fruit based solely on how it smelled. For example, rather than using orange to show that fruit choose a color to share how sweet it smelled and make the color dark or light to indicate whether the odor was strong or faint. 


Finish by showing your picture to another family member who didn't see the mystery fruit. Can they identify whether your picture shares an orange, an apple, or a banana? Then have your partner reveal the mystery fruit and let everyone share sniffing and tasting it.

At one point in the story, the young female thrusts her muzzle skyward and howls. Where she used to live, her voice would have drawn a chorus of other wolf voices and the arrival of her family. Try it!  

Have family members scatter throughout the house. Then you move to wherever you want your family to meet up. Start your family’s chorus by tipping your head back and giving a good loud howl.  Have each family member join in with a howl that is slightly different than yours and thus uniquely their own. Each family member should also move toward you between howls. Repeat until your entirely family has found you.






Did howling help you find each other?

Did you find you were quickly able to identify each family member by their individual howl?
Imagine how you would feel if, like the female wolf in the story, you howled and your family never found you?




























The young female wolf finally becomes able to catch prey to feed herself by practicing her hunting skills. Name at least five things practice has helped you learn to do better.







































Finally, one day, the young female discovers she’s no longer the only wolf in her home territory. When she first meets the young male they sniff each other, rub heads, and lick muzzles. Like wolves, people have customs for greeting someone new? Think about how people you know respond to being introduced to someone.








Family Pack has a very happy ending. 

Female 7 and Male 2 mate. I suspect it was love at first sniff. When they had pups, their family pack became the first naturally formed pack in Yellowstone following the reintroduction of wolves. Scientists called it the Leopold Pack. 

Over the years since then, the Leopold Pack has grown into one of the strongest and largest packs in Yellowstone National Park. Female 7 and Male 2 are no longer living. However, their descendants continue to hunt the same territory Female 7 first claimed when everywhere she went she left the first wolf prints to mark the ground in over seventy years.

Now, isn't that one special wild female worth honoring this month!?




Friday, March 4, 2016

MARCH FORTH







March Fourth is National March Forth And Do Something Day

I LOVE it because March is a "capitonym"--a word whose meaning changes depending on if it's capitalized or not. So capitalized it's this month and otherwise it means a way to walk. So, while you march on this March day, have fun with WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL FEET!? 


LET’S STOMP


Have each child choose his or her favorite animal feet. 

Choose some foot stomping music and have the children spread out at least an arm’s length apart. Then turn on the music and have kids dance where they’re standing. 

Remind them to dance as if they had their favorite animal feet. 



Afterwards, ask the children to tell how it was different to dance with that animal’s feet. Next, have them tell how they think it would be different to do each of these things if they had that animal’s feet.
  • Take a bath
  • Pick up their room
  • Make their bed

Now, let them pick another animal’s feet, start the music, and dance some more!


BEASTIE SHOE SHOP

Start by having children list all the kinds of shoes they can think of. That list will include: boots, sneakers, loafers, high heels, waders, sandals, high tops—and more.

This animal's shoes will need to be big and tough!


As a class, vote on one animal from WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL FEET!? to treat to their very first pair of shoes. 

Share building a list of ideas to answer these questions:
  • What should those shoes do for the animal’s feet?
  • What material will the shoes need to be made out of to fit the animal’s habitat and behavior?
  • What special features could be added to the animal’s shoes to make them extra special?  


Have the children work alone or in small groups to draw and color pictures or make models of their special animal’s new shoes.

MY NEAT FEET

The Rest of the Story


Have children look through WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL FEET!? and pick their favorite picture of a boy or girl with animal feet. Now have them tell the rest of the story.

Each of those pictures shows only one moment in a story. Challenge children to imagine--and tell--the rest.
  • What led up to the moment shown in the picture?
  • What is really happening in the picture?
  • How is this story likely to end?



For example, look on page 19 at the boy digging for treasure with aardvark feet. How did he get the treasure map and find the right spot to dig? 
How does he feel about finding the treasure? And what kind of treasure did he find?
What will he do now that he’s found the treasure? How will it change his life?

NEW FEET





I'm sure everyone will agree that the animals in the book  have totally cool feet. For this activity ask children to pick an animal that isn’t in the book. 

Have them dig into books and work with older students or adults to search on-line and find out about that animal. 


Most important, encourage them to find the answers to these two questions:
1. What are that animal's feet like?
2. How does the animal use its feet to move and stay alive?


Next, like WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL FEET!? have children make two-pages (a left hand/right hand spread) for their animal. On one page, they should answer the two questions. On the second page, they should share at least one super fun way it would be cool to have that animal’s feet for a day.

FOOT SWAP
















Ask children to imagine what it would be like if one day an animal woke up with different feet. What if....
A Mountain Goat had White Rhinoceros feet?
A Cheetah had Eastern Gray Kangaroo feet?
A Barn Owl had Cheetah feet?
A Giant African Millipede had Green Basilisk feet?
A Wolf had Duck-Billed Platypus feet?

Or make up another foot swap.  

Challenge children to think of something totally cool that animal could do with its new feet. Be sure they also consider how that swap might cause serious problems.


Okay, these activities got you started. Now, MARCH FORTH and come up with even more. 
smile emoticon

I'LL READ TO YOU: RACE THE WILD WIND

  Relax and enjoy as I read to you. Click to start RACE THE WILD WIND (Bloomsbury) And enjoy your own copy from Amazon