Where Have All the Animals Gone?

Image from: https://www.deviantart.com/plazmodon/art/Dodo-walking-GIF-546361147

             “What day is it today?” Pauline asked.

        “Monday!” A said.

             “Friday!” Z said. We sang the 7 days of the week song again and found out that today is Wednesday. Tomorrow is Thursday, and we’re going to celebrate a special day–

“Earth month!” A said. Yes! It’s Earth Day!

We talked about how Earth day is celebrating our beautiful home planet, and how we should take care of it.

“I saw a recycle sign at the back of my plastic cracker,” S said. L also pointed out when she was putting on sunscreen that at the back of her sunscreen bottle was also a recycle sign. We remembered the circle time that Sayaka had with us about one way to protect our Earth is through recycling.

Pauline then showed us a couple of pictures of animals and plants– The Indian cheetah, Western Africa black rhino, Tasmanian tiger, Steller’s sea cow, dodo bird, Franklinia tree, Saint Helena Olive, and the Hawaii yellowwood. She said that she wanted to see the dodo bird the most– she wanted to see for herself how big it was, if it could fly, or if it ate children.

Wait, what?

“NOOOOO!” was our collective response while we grinned and giggled. Yes, Pauline said that the dodo doesn’t eat children while she laughed at our reactions.

“How about you? What animals do you want to see in person?” she asked us.

“The tiger,” A said. He was actually pointing to an animal called the Indian cheetah. “Because it’s so cute,” he told us.

“The sea cow, because I like it,” N said.

“ The tiger,” A pointed to the picture.  “Because tiger eat bird,” he explained.

“The Tasmanian Tiger,” A said. “To see if it’s eating birds,” he added.

L pointed to the Indian cheetah as well– then we noticed that her dress was in a cheetah print!

“The cheetah. I want to see what it eats,” R said.

“The rhino. I like the rhino,” R said.

“All of them! Because I think they are all beautiful!” S said.

“The cheetah. Because I like dots,” H said.

“Tiger,” A said. She said that she likes tigers.

“Cheetah. I want it to go fast,” A said.

“I want the tiger because I think they are very scary,” Z said.

U pointed to the Hawaii yellowwood, and she said, “Beautiful.”

“Rhino. Big rhino!” H said.

Kai said that he wanted to see the cheetah because he didn’t know that there were cheetahs in India.

Then Pauline delivered the sad news– even if we want to see all these plants and animals, we can only see them like this: in pictures! Or in the movies and TV! You know why? They’re extinct!

We repeated the word after her: extinct. We didn’t know the meaning, so Pauline gave the dinosaurs as an example.

“So do you know what happened to the dinosaurs? Do you see dinosaurs now?” Pauline asked.

“No, because they’re not here anymore, and they died before there were people,” H explained. That’s what extinct is– the animals have died, and they’re gone. Gone forever!

“A big rock hit the animals that’s why they’re extinct,” N said. That’s true– for the dinosaurs! Our teachers explained that scientists have said that a big rock from outer space called an asteroid hit the Earth– and it caused all the volcanoes to erupt, the Earth became very hot, there was a lot of smoke so there was no good air to breathe (Our oxygen), so the dinosaurs died.

As for the animals and plants that were in Pauline’s pictures, she explained the reason for the extinction. One was people were cutting down too much tree, without planting new ones. For example, some people want to build shopping malls, hotels, towers. There’s no space because it’s filled with trees. So they chop– chop– chop all the trees so they can have a big space to build their big buildings and towers.

“For one tree cut down, they should plant 4 trees!” H suggested. Yes, that’s a good idea! We talked about how trees are homes for lots of animals, and they are a source of food. Without trees, they get hungry, cold, and become extinct.

Another reason was hunting. Pauline explained the reason why playing with toy guns are not allowed at Ohana– they give “ouchies” to people and animals. In hunting animals, people use guns. They can use parts of the animals’ body for food, medicine, or for decor at home. They hunt the animals too much, too often, so the animals become extinct.

“If you can protect and take care of an animal– or plant-  so that it doesn’t go extinct, what would it be?” Pauline asked.

“When I go to Singapore, I might take a cat. I’m going to protect one cat because I can’t take all the cats in the world as pets,” H explained.

“I would like to protect the lions,” Z said.

“I want the lions because they’re cute,” A said.

“I want to protect the pandas!” S said. We would like to chat more about this topic, but it was time for us to go to the temple!

It was a warm, beautiful weather, and the temple had lots of trees, so there was some good shade. We saw some caterpillars hanging by a thin, silky thread spiralling upwards towards the leaves! Kai said they were probably starting to build their cocoons.

In the morning, Sayaka helped us make a beautiful card to thank the priest at the temple for letting us always play there. He looked happy to receive his card as we told him a big “Arigatou gozaimasu!”

That sums up our Wednesday– how about you? How was your day?

Love,

All the Earth– friendly children in Petals Class

P.S.

We celebrated Moko sensei’s kanreki today (Her actual birthday is this Friday, April 23rd). Sayaka helped us to make a card for her which we gave to her in the afternoon. Happy Kanreki, Moko sensei!

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