How Some Animals Became What They are Today

1. How Some Animals Became What They are Today Fictional Stories by The Four Corners Third Grade Wednesday Group

2. Greetings parents and guardians of our wonderful third grade partners! This Fall we began an exciting new internship with Four Corners School where the third graders visit Greenfield High School for an exciting new educational experience. We work as partners each Monday and Wednesday to explore the wonderful world of science together. Our first lessons were all about adaptation and how the environment influences each species. We introduced the third grade to our Science Center which houses a variety of plants and animals. Students learned about living organisms and how they interact with their environment. Our lessons emphasized the link between animals and plants, how plants and animals react to our changing environment. As we examined the adaptations of our unique plants and animals, we also enjoyed reading many wonderful children's stories that included many unique explanations of how organisms got to be the way they are - both scientific and fictional. One of the favorite stories was a Native American Tale about how “Bear Lost His Tail”. It is lots of fun observing unique adaptations and we enjoyed many of the cultural stories. We soon learned they’re not only physical but often behavioral characteristics that help species survive. We then enjoyed researching many unique cultural stories of how adaptations occur. Many stories were recorded by Rudyard Kipling but many more were discovered by the high school students from Native American cultures. The third graders then created their own wonderful creative stories of how many of our wild creatures got to be they way they are. We hope you enjoy our fun first project! Happy Holidays Greenfield High Science Center

3. How Bear Lost His Tail -- An Iroquois Tale Back in the old days, Bear had a tail which was his proudest possession. It was long and black and glossy and Bear used to wave it around just so that people would look at it. Fox saw this. Fox, as everyone knows, is a trickster and likes nothing better than fooling others. So it was that he decided to play a trick on Bear. It was the time of year when Hatho, the Spirit of Frost, had swept across the land, covering the lakes with ice and pounding on the trees with his big hammer. Fox made a hole in the ice, right near a place where Bear liked to walk. By the time Bear came by, all around Fox, in a big circle, were big trout and fat perch. Just as Bear was about to ask Fox what he was doing, Fox twitched his tail which he had sticking through that hole in the ice and pulled out a huge trout. "Greetings, Brother," said Fox. "How are you this fine day?" "Greetings," answered Bear, looking at the big circle of fat fish. "I am well, Brother. But what are you doing?" "I am fishing," answered Fox. "Would you like to try?"

4. How Bear Lost His Tail -- An Iroquois tale Continued…. "Oh, yes," said Bear, as he started to lumber over to Fox's fishing hole. But Fox stopped him. "Wait, Brother," he said, "This place will not be good. As you can see, I have already caught all the fish. Let us make you a new fishing spot where you can catch many big trout." Bear agreed and so he followed Fox to the new place, a place where, as Fox knew very well, the lake was too shallow to catch the winter fish--which always stay in the deepest water when Hatho has covered their ponds. Bear watched as Fox made the hole in the ice, already tasting the fine fish he would soon catch. "Now," Fox said, "you must do just as I tell you. Clear your mind of all thoughts of fish. Do not even think of a song or the fish will hear you. Turn your back to the hole and place your tail inside it. Soon a fish will come and grab your tail and you can pull him out." "But how will I know if a fish has grabbed my tail if my back is turned?" asked Bear.

5. How Bear Lost His Tail -- An Iroquois tale Continued…. "I will hide over here where the fish cannot see me," said Fox. "When a fish grabs your tail, I will shout. Then you must pull as hard as you can to catch your fish. But you must be very patient. Do not move at all until I tell you.“ Bear nodded, "I will do exactly as you say." He sat down next to the hole, placed his long beautiful black tail in the icy water and turned his back. Fox watched for a time to make sure that Bear was doing as he was told and then, very quietly, sneaked back to his own house and went to bed. The next morning he woke up and thought of Bear. "I wonder if he is still there," Fox said to himself. "I'll just go and check.“ So Fox went back to the ice covered pond and what do you think he saw? He saw what looked like a little white hill in the middle of the ice. It had snowed during the night and covered Bear, who had fallen asleep while waiting for Fox to tell him to pull his tail and catch a fish. And Bear was snoring. His snores were so loud that the ice was shaking. It was so funny that Fox rolled with laughter. But when he was through laughing, he decided the time had come to wake up poor Bear. He crept very close to Bear's ear, took a deep breath, and then shouted: "Now, Bear!!!" Bear woke up with a start and pulled his long tail hard as he could. But his tail had been caught in the ice which had frozen over during the night and as he pulled, it broke off -- Whack! -- just like that. Bear turned around to look at the fish he had caught and instead saw his long lovely tail caught in the ice. "Ohhh," he moaned, "ohhh, Fox. I will get you for this." But Fox, even though he was laughing fit to kill was still faster than Bear and he leaped aside and was gone. So it is that even to this day Bears have short tails and no love at all for Fox. And if you ever hear a bear moaning, it is probably because he remembers the trick Fox played on him long ago and he is mourning for his lost tail. Note: This Native American tale is from the website: www.firstpeople.us, a site with many native American tales from many of the tribes that are in the United states. This particular version of “How The Bear Lost His Tail” is the Iroquois version from that site

6. How the Hedgehog Came to Be by Neni , Brielle, Lilly , Ava , & Ingrid   One upon a time there was furry little rabbit. The little rabbit saw a porcupine and instantly fell in love. The rabbit and the porcupine both went on a date in the forest to the 99 Porcupine. They ate leaves, grass and worms. They drank water from the pond in cups. “It’s a lovely day to take a walk,” said the rabbit girl. “Of Course!” said the porcupine.

7. As they took a walk through the magical forest they saw three magic mushrooms. Both of them ate the top of the mushrooms and a baby appeared!

8. The baby wasn’t quite a rabbit or a porcupine, it was a hedgehog! Then the hedgehog ate the mushrooms, after he ate the mushroom a baby boy hedgehog appeared. The first girl hedgehog and the boy hedgehog fell in love.

9. The End!

10. How the Hedgehog Came to Be by Neni , Brielle, Lilly , Ava , & Ingrid

11. Why the Squid has Tentacles? By: Tye One day a giant squid was attacking the coral reef and eating all the fish. He grabbed the fish with all his tentacles and that is how he got so many to eat at the same time. It was impossible for the fish to swim away. The fish tried to swim away but Tye the giant squid was too fast for the fish. Yum, yum.

12. How the Tortoise got its Shell? By: Wesley Once upon a time there was a tortoise named Savannah and she needed shelter for her eggs and herself. Savannah tried digging a hole out but she didn’t have good feet for digging. One day she got a hermit crab with a shell so Savannah went searching for a shell but she couldn’t find one, so she went to a monkey to carve a rock into a shell and she squeezed in and had a shell for the rest of her life.

13. How the Monkey got its Tail? By: Jason One year there was a monkey named Jason. He lived in the Savannah forest. Where the trees have a lot of vines. One day Jason was eating lots of bananas in the tree. After he ate all the bananas on the tree he wanted to go to another tree. When he wanted to go to another tree he swung with arms to the next tree he got caught in the vines. When he finally got unstuck Jason had a vine attached to his butt. He went days and days with the vine still stuck and he noticed it wasn’t going anywhere. That’s how the monkey got its tail.

14. Why the Moose has its Antlers? By: Eric One day there was a moose named “lers’”. He lived in the woods and he wanted to fight and he decided he needed to because he was being chased by a tiger. So he ran and ran until he fell straight into a pile of sticks! When he woke up he had antlers stuck to his head and so he changed his name to “Antlers”.

15. How the Tortoise got its shell? By: Katie Once there was a tortoise named Savannah. She got too big for her shell. So Savannah went to a shell store for tortoises. Savannah tried on a whole shelf of tortoise shells and they were either too big or too small. But there was one tortoise shell left. Savannah grabbed the tortoise shell left. Savannah grabbed the tortoise shell with her big clawed hand and put it on her back. The shell fit perfectly and that was Savannah’s shell for the rest of her life.

16. How the Dog Got His Bark by Trevor

17. Bob the Bobcat by Maryn There once was a bobcat named Bob. Every day he wondered how he got his claws, So he walked to his friend squirrels house. ‘Hello is anyone home “? Asked Bob. “Oh hello Bob”. Squirrel let Bob in. “Hi Squirrel”. I want to know if you know how I got my claws. “Oh Sure”! Said squirrel. It all happened a long time ago. You were a little cub but you would run around and …. Hum, Squirrel, I want to know when I got my claws”. Bob said. OK squirrel shouted. So you got claws when you were three. You grew your claws, OK. OK thanks Squirrel. The End

18. Once upon a time there was a tiger who loved to play but the other tigers would not let him play with them because he had no teeth. He went home, sad. One day, he felt pain in his mouth. He had teeth and now the other tigers play with him now. By Maya

19. Once there was a tortoise named Savanna. She lived in Africa. She met a friend. One day her friend decided to play a trick on her. So, one day Savanna followed her friend and when she got there she saw a lion. She got scared so she hid in her shell. The End!

20. How the Bearded Dragon got its Spikes One day, Olivia, Katie and Maelin were on vacation at the beach. They had brought their pet bearded dragon, when they all decided to go on a walk on the beach. Since Stinky like sand they all walked to bring him along. As they were walking along the beach, they all became tired. The sand was cooling warm so they decided to just lie down in the sand. Stinky was on a lizard leach, so he just chilled in the sand while they closed their eyes for a while. A couple of hours later, everyone fast asleep on the warm sand, they heard screaming! Shark, Shark, Shark!

21. Olivia, Katie and Maelin started running up the beach, to get away from the shark. Not remembering that they had dropped the leash of Stinky. Nobody was brave enough to go back down to the beach, while the shark was near the shore. Meanwhile, Stinky was wondering in the nice warm sand, not realizing that the shark was feet away from him. He tried scrambling away before the shark got to him Chomp, Chomp, Chomp! The Shark bit him!. Stinky laid there thinking that he was going to dies…. The next thing he knew, he woke up on the beach! He jut laid there in shock, and fell to sleep on the beach

22. Katie, Olivia and Maelin all the next day walked down to the beach looking for Stinky. They had been calling his name, and running all around searching. They had found him! They all saw the spike on him. The everyone realized that he had gotten bit by the shark! He seemed perfectly fin. From that day forward, the bearded dragon have the spikes on his body.