See an Opossum and a Desert Tortoise

By Alasia, Amanda, Bethany, Garrison, and Lexi

On Monday, Wildlife Experience returned with two amazing animals.

First, we learned about footprints. You can figure out if an animal has been on a nature trail by looking at the footprints.

We got to hold rubber footprints from five different animals.

Here is Awesome the Opossum! Opossums are the only marsupials that live in North America. A marsupial is an animal that lives on land and has a pouch.

Awesome the Opossum has an amazing adaptation that she uses when she meets a predator. When an opossum is scared of something or someone, it tries to run away. If it can't outrun what is scaring it, then it will bare its 50 razor-sharp teeth and will snarl.

If that doesn't work it goes into a catatonic state. That means a chemical is sent to the opossum's brain that makes it fall asleep, and it releases a scent that smells rotten. The dead smelly opossum is "playing dead" and that can save an opossum's life. Minutes later, the opossum wakes up, but does not know what happened. It did not even know it was playing dead!

Wildlife Experience also brought a desert tortoise!

These reptiles are an endangered species because some people take them out of the desert to keep as pets. Those people might have pets that have parasites which could spread to the tortoise. Sometimes, they return them back in the desert and that virus can spread to other tortoises. When that happens, sometimes a tortoise dies or it could get extremely ill! If that happens, the animal control could come and rescue the animal. That is what happened to the tortoise picture above. This tortoise no longer has the disease and is used for classroom events.

Have you ever seen either of these animals in the wild?

Have you ever played dead? When and why?

Please leave us a comment!

Leonis Adobe Museum Trip

By Taylor G., Taylor S., Bethany, Shane F.,

Learning about your community is part of the third grade Social Studies curriculum. To learn more about the history of our community, all third graders visited the Leonis Adobe Museum.

Miguel Leonis and his Chumash bride, Espiritu, lived in the adobe.

At first, we gathered around the giant oak tree. Our docent told us this tree was over 600 years old!

All we could find under the oak, were acorn leaves and acorn caps. The squirrels have been busy!

Water was needed at the ranch. Here the docent explains about how water is pumped from the ground.

Here is one of the cowgirls working hard at the pump!

Later, a windmill was added. The wind provided the energy to pump up the water, and it was then stored in the water tank.

Water was needed to wash the clothes. Here is a photo of a washboard and wringer.

Water was also used for...bathing! The tub was small so it could be picked up and carried out to the garden. The bathwater was reused to water the plants.

Inside the house, the docent explained who lived in the house and what kind of a life they lived. We were surprised to see the kitchen floor was dirt!

Upstairs we got to see some sample adobe bricks and learned more about them. Adobe is made of mud, straw, and animal manure.

Upstairs there was a museum room with old books, musical instruments, and a journal. There were sample quill pens on the desk so we could see what people used to use for writing.

During our field trip to Leonis Adobe Museum, we made tortillas and butter.

The first step was to get yellow corn from the garden. Then we took all the corn off the cob. Next, we put the kernels in a bowl and mashed it into
a yellow corn powder.

Water was added to the corn meal to make a corn tortilla mix. Next, the workers rolled the batter into a ball and pressed it flat in the iron tortilla press. It was hard work keeping the ranch going!

At Leonis Adobe we saw goats, Texas long horns, and sheep. They used fur from the sheep for wool blankets, and the meat for food. The goats' milk was used for drinking and making cheese. The Texas long horns provided meat for food, fur for blankets, and
manure for planting.

Here is an anvil and whetstone used by the blacksmith.

A big part of life on the ranch was tending the animals. Here is one of the ranchers showing off his skills with the lasso!

Yeehaw!

We fed the animals hay. It tickled when they took the hay from our hands.

We learned that goats and sheep have rectangular pupils unlike ours which are circular.

At the Leonis Adobe Museum the girls made rag dolls. We could have a pink doll or a green doll. The docent gave us a long string and three little strings. With the short strings, we made two arms and a head. Finally, we knotted the long string to the doll so we could wear it as a necklace. During the 1880s, girls at Leonis Adobe used the wool from the sheep to make their dolls.

Back in the 1880s, Miguel and Espirtu did not have indoor bathrooms. They had to walk outside to an outhouse. That must have been a long, cold walk!

After a long day working at the adobe, we were treated to yummy corn tortillas and homemade butter! They were delicious!

The road in front of the Leonis Adobe was part of the trail that connected the 21 missions from San Diego to San Fransisco. It was called the "El Camino Real" or "King's Highway".


A great time was had by all, and much was learned about the history of Calabasas.

The End

Water Cycle Scupture

In November, Bethany created a sculpture of the water cycle. She made her extra credit project at home with tissue, blank paper, pipe cleaners, glitter, and crayons.

The water cycle can start with evaporation. Water is evaporated and becomes water vapor. Then it condenses into clouds. When the clouds get heavy enough, it rains. The water flows down into rivers which can flow into the ocean!