Of Opossums, Leaders and Lima Beans

Fourth grade is off to a great start.  Cassie's teacher asked the students to make a poster showing how to conserve one of Virginia's natural resources.  The students were also to write a paragraph about the resource.  All the work was to be done outside of class, which meant that parents had to help.  We began by researching endangered resources.  The Chesapeake Bay and the Occoquan River were both obvious choices.  But, true to form, Cassie had to be different.  She explalined that because most of her classmates were studying the waterways, she was going to pursue the opposum. Again true to form, reading about the opossum and writing a paragraph weren't enough.  She wanted to see a live opossum.  I called several wildlife resuce centers, but none were open to visitors.  Cassie decided to lure an opossum with food and conduct a "stakeout."  She researched the opossum's favorite food and set out a plate of apple peels, dry dog food, overdone pork ribs and acorn squash.  So it was that around 9 p.m. on a chlly Saturday night, I found myself shivering in the playhouse, waiting patiently for an opossum to appear.  No such luck. 

The following morning, all the food was gone.  But, we had no idea what had eaten it. Cassie reasoned that it could have been eaten by a fox, racoon or dog, as well as an opossum.  But, she was sure it hadn't been deer, because they're vegetarians.

The next two nights Cassie set out watermelon.  She thought that this would eliminate the carnivores.  She also set the food out earlier, hoping to invite the animal to arrive earlier so that we could see it.  She had carefully placed the food so that an animal would activate the motion detector and turn the floodlight on.  Each morning the food was gone.  But, we still didn't know what was feasting.  Cassie had conducted research on how to identify bite marks.  But, there was no food left to examine!

Then, we decided to lay out an old tarp covered with sand, with a plate of food in the middle, to see if we could get the animal's footprints.  This would help with the identification.  Once again, on a cool dark night, I found myself out in the back yard.  We laid down the tarp, covered it with sand, wet the sand and smoothed it.  Cassie put out raspberries, acorn squash, honeydew melon and pasta.  In the morning, there were footprints everywhere.  We followed this routine for a couple more days, carefully photographing the footprings.  We discovered that our visitor liked melon, bread, plums, pineapple and falafels. 

Casie next had to determine whether the animal was a raccoon or an opossum.  They both have opposable thumbs and similar footprints.  She studied photos of the different footprints and compared our photos.  She concluded that one or more opossums were visiting the yard.  And, I believe that she's right.  She wants to continue feeding the opossum so that we "lower the amount of stuff in landfills."

Cassie made a beautiful poster, complete with gems and glitter glue.  She wrote the following acrostic poem for the opossum:

"Oh, opossum with your little
Pink nose and feet,
Oh how adorable and
Sweet and
Subtle
Using your sharp teeth not at all
Marsupials you are our only ones." 

Her advice for protecting the opossum is, "Tell your dad, brother and friends not to shoot opossums.  Leave food outside for an opossum.  Donate time or money to a wildlife center."



Cassie preparing for the opossum



An opossum print

In other fourth grade news - the elementary school has a longstanding partnership with a local bank.  Students were given a chance to apply for leadership positions in the school bank.  Cassie submitted an application and then interviewed with the Assistant Principal and the Assistant Manager of the Bank.  She was very excited and dressed in a black skirt, white shirt and black sequined necktie for the interview.  She was selected to be the Assistant Manager of the Bank.  Once  afternoon a week she will help students open bank accounts. 

Finally, Cassie brought home a writing assignment today that clearly demonstrates her writing skill!  I've included it, for your reading pleasure.  We scanned it to preserve its authenticity.  The comments in green are from Cassie's teacher.