California Wildlife Assembly

Today we had a very special treat, thanks to the YES foundation.  The California Wildlife Center came to visit Manor.  I don't know who enjoyed it more, the kids or me.  I had to hold myself back from running up to the front of the multipurpose room to snuggle with these AMAZING wild animals.  Megan and Tess, naturalists with the Wildlife Center, brought five visitors including a nervous red fox, a stately red tailed hawk, an unfortunate looking oppossum, a great horned owl, and a wonderfully large rodent--a porcupine.  By chance, the kids and I had just shared a book about porcupines earlier in the morning.  What luck to be able to observe one in person less than an hour later. 
Here are some of the kids of room 5 sharing their thoughts about our wild visitors.

“Hey, we saw an opossum today at an assembly. We learned about a red tailed hawk. We saw a porcupine. We saw a red fox. We learned about 6 animals today. We saw a horned owl. The horned owl has a good sense of hearing. These animals are all in America.”
--Diego

“I saw a fox named Cache. His story is: On his first fieldtrip to learn to hunt the mom and her cubs were walking across the road and a car came and hit the mom! The people felt terrible. They knew what to do. They took [the cubs] to a wild care [center] and the wild care center sent them to the place that takes care of the animals of all species.”
--Nancy

“It was really fun even though I was late. The three animals I saw were amazing. I saw an opossum named Oh No, an owl named Luna, and a porcupine named Thistle. It was great. I did not see the red tailed hawk or the fox.”
--Sophia

“A girl found a possum and said Oh No! And brought it home and laid it on the carpet. It pooped and she said Oh No! And she put it on the couch…” To Be Continued
--Aidan

“The wildlife came to school and we saw Ohno. Ohno is an opossum and this is how the story goes. A lady came home and she saw an opossum. She said Oh No and she picked up the opossum and it pooped on the rug and…” To Be Continued
--Liza

“First we saw a red fox. He went to the animal shelter because his mom got run over by a car when the fox was a baby. Then we saw a red tailed hawk. He went to the shelter because kids were throwing rocks at him and he fell out of a tree.”
--Alexander
“Right before the assembly we read a book about porcupines. In the assembly we got to see one!!!”
--Orion

“We went to an assembly. My favorite animal I’ve seen was a red tail hawk. We also saw an owl.”
--Miles

“Today I saw an opossum at school named Ohno. She is so cute and fluffy.”
--Tori

“We went to an assembly today. We saw a porcupine. It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. They said it had 30,000 quills!”
--Kaden

“1. Opossums are big!
2. Great horned owls have ears.
3. Red foxes go on fieldtrips to learn how to survive.”
--Skylar

“There was a bird and when he was a little birdy he was in his nest with his sister. Some kids were walking home from school and they saw the nest with the baby birds in it and one of them said, Hey, I know a game. Let’s throw rocks at them and see who gets the closest. Some of them thought that wasn’t a good idea and they went to get a grown-up. When they got back it was too late. The nest was already out of the tree. So they called the wildlife center and they brought them [there]. His sister was okay, but he wasn’t.”
--Pema