Halloween Mask Silhouettes

Samples of how the masks will look once these are cut from black construction paper.

        Teachers or guardians will need to enlarge the patterns to fit their student's head. I've included a picture above to show what these paper Halloween masks will look like once they have been cut from black construction paper. Students may wish to include more details on their masks drawn with a white crayon. Attach a string to hold the masks in place with a stapler on either side of these scary little faces.

       The angry cat seems like a Halloween classic to me, but, the angry bunny rabbit? Oh, well these are very old patterns folks. Sometimes cultural norms slip through the cracks of time...

The angry black cat, I understand.

The angry bunny? Not so much.

Wildlife Stencils for The Classroom

Stencil of bird in flight with out-stretched wings.

    Be sure to click directly on the stencils in order to download the largest file size. These four wildlife stencils for educators to use in their classrooms are duty free: bluebird, jay, running rabbit and a squirrel holding an acorn.

Stencil of a jay sitting on the limb of a tree.

Stencil of a running rabbit or hare.

Stencil of a squirrel holding a hazel nut.

Falling Leaves, Squirrels Up Trees...

Silhouettes of oak leaves.

       These two pages of Fall/Autumn paper cuts are by Beckwith. You may cut them from cardboard and trace around them to create fall vignettes in your classroom or paper cut-outs for crafting with young students.

Silhouette of squirrel eating acorns in a tree.

Echidna

       The echidna or spiny ant-eater, a genus of Australian toothless mammals, in size and general appearance resembling a large hedgehog, excepting that the spines are longer, and the muzzle is long and slender, with a small opening at the end through which a long, flexible tongue can be thrust. The echidna sleep during the day.

       It has short, strong legs and its five toes are armed with powerful claws so that it can burrow easily in the ground. It feeds upon ants and other insects, which it catches with its long, sticky tongue. It is nearly allied to the oraithorhynchus or duckbill, and the two form a peculiar class of animals, having in their structure some of the peculiarities that mark mammals, birds and reptiles.

More About Echidna From The Web:

• Echidna Babies Are Real Weird by Animallogic
• Living Ball of Spikes!

Foxhound

       A foxhound is a high-spirited hound that has a keen scent, remarkable perseverance and great endurance. It is easily trained and becomes very skillful in hunting foxes. Somewhat smaller than the staghound, the foxhound seems to be a cross between the staghound or the bloodhound and the greyhound. It is commonly of a white color, with patches of black and tan, has short hair, large and straight limbs and large, thin ears. Its usual height is about twenty inches.

More About Foxhounds from The Web:

• Read About The Breed: AKA - American Foxhound
• The English Foxhound At A Glance

Flamingo: 10 Fun Facts

The flamingo is a strange-looking bird, whose body is rather smaller than that of the stork, but which, owing to its great length of neck and leg, measures on average six feet, from head to foot. 

10 Fun Facts About Flamingos:

1. There are several different species found in Mediterranean and tropical countries, all more or less red in color and varying in size. 
2. They migrate in V-shaped flocks. 
3. Their necks are extremely slender and flexible, and their big, naked bills are bent abruptly down, as if broken near the middle.
4. In feeding, the bird stands nearly erect, thrusting its neck downward and burying its bill and perhaps its head in the water, with the top of the bill downward. 
5. It then sways its head from side to side, causing currents of water to pass back and forth through the bill, where fine horny projections strain out the seeds and the small animals that are stirred up from the bottom by the bird's feet. 
6. The birds nest in the warm countries in large colonies, upon muddy flats near the water level. 
7. Their nests are big cones of reeds and sticks, cut off squarely at such a height that the mother bird can sit with her legs dangling down the sides, though she usually sits with them folded up beneath her.
8. The flamingo of North America nests in the latitude of Florida. 
9. The male has a light red plumage, whose large feathers have black quills; the females are pale pink and the young nearly white. 
10. As is the case with other beautiful birds, their handsome plumes made them sought by hunters in the past and laws have been passed for their protection.

More About Flamingos From The Web:

• Captured Flamingos Get Hydrotheraphy
• How baby flamingos get their pink color

Flamingos at Lake Nakuru by Ruedi Abbuhl.

Bower-bird: The Great "Seducer"

       The bower-bird , a name given to several different birds living in Australia or the Pacific islands. They are so called because in the nesting season they build remarkable bowers to serve as places of resort. These are constructed on the ground, usually under overhanging branches in secluded parts of the forest. There the male birds meet and dance and go through the queer antics that are supposed to attract their mates. One species even uses small shells for decoration; another bird builds a tent-like structure around a sapling, using for rafters the stem of an orchid that continues to blossom after it is picked; still another uses only feathers. This fondness for bright things is not confined to the bower-birds, though no other birds seem to possess it to so great a degree. The magpie may be mentioned as an American illustration of this trait.

More About Bower-bird From The Web:

• Bowerbirds Pull Off a Jewel Heist
• Satin Bowerbird part 1 and part 2 by SuperBruceallen
• The Vogelkop Bowerbird: Nature's Great Seducer

Thirty Feet! How Many Do You Know?

       Just as a good shoemaker makes shoes to fit the feet, nature make feet to fit the needs of each individual animal. How many of these feet could you name? They are, from left to right, top to bottom: Horse, Elephant, Eagle, Ostrich, Camel; second row - Chimpanzee, Tiger, Duck, Water Shrew, Lizard, Tiger, Beetle; third row - Sloth, Bear, Locust, Flamingo, Duck-billed Platypus, Crab: fourth row- Peccary, Garden Spider, Giraffe, Frog, Armadillo, Ox; and fifth row- Kangaroo, Box Turtle, Squirrel, Iguana, Harvest Mouse, and Gecko.

Duck: 11 Fun Facts

The 12 Most Beautiful Ducks in The World

 by 4 Ever Green. 

       A duck is a web-footed bird, related to the goose and the swan. It is everywhere considered a table delicacy, especially a number of the wild varieties, and therefore within reasonable limits it is the legitimate prey of sportsmen. 

11 Fun Facts About Ducks:

1. Game laws protect it except during a short season in the autumn.
2. The species can be classed as deep sea ducks, which often obtain their food by diving to a great depth, and river ducks, which remain in shallow water.
3. Some species are migratory, going northward in summer to their breeding places.
4. The duck's food is partly vegetable, partly animal.
5. Ducks have short, thick bodies, covered with thick feathers, under which is a fine, soft down.
6. In some varieties the feathers are beautifully colored. 
7. The bill is broad and flat, with toothed edges, for holding or straining food. 
8. The head is rather large; the neck, long and gracefully curved, yet much shorter than the neck of the goose or swan. 
9. The feathers are well oiled from glands situated ahead of the tail, and are therefore waterproof. 
10. A peculiar characteristic of the short legs is that they are located back of the center of the body; this causes a strange movement in walking, sometimes called a "waddle."
11. The food of the wild ducks consists largely of insects, minnows, small frogs, grain, grasses, etc.

More Types of Ducks:

       The common mallard, or wild duck, is the original of the domestic duck. In its wild state the male is characterized by the deep green plumage of the head and neck, by a white collar separating the green from the dark chestnut of the lower part of the neck and by having the four middle feathers of the tail recurved. Some tame ducks have nearly the same plumage as the wild ones; others vary greatly, being generally duller or pure white, but all the males have the four recurved tail feathers. There are several favorite varieties of the domestic duck, those of Normandy and Picardy in France and the Aylesbury ducks in England, being remarkable for their great size!

More About Ducks on The Web:

• Duck Army Invades China!
• Ducks Protect Vineyards in South Africa and Another Quack Squad Rescue

Seal: 12 Interesting Facts

Earless Seal. See many other types at wikipedia.

       A seal is a warm-blooded, air- breathing, animal that lives both in the water and on the land. A few seals are found in the Caspian Sea and Lake Baikal, but, with these exceptions, all seals are inhabitants of the sea. They are divided into two classes, called true seals, which have no external ears, and eared seals.

12 Interesting Facts About Seals In General:

1. The seal has a body which is large at the front and tapers toward the tail, like that of the whales. 
2. It has four legs, which are almost covered by the skin of the body, while in place of the feet are fins or flippers. 
3. The hind legs are used in swimming, and the fore legs support the animal in an erect position when he is on the land. 
4. The mouth is large and is surrounded by numerous feelers, resembling those of the cat. 
5. The eyes are large, with an almost human expression, and the ears are small or entirely lacking. 
6. The body is covered by thick, woolly fur and long, shining hair, and all is so oily and smooth that it enables the seal to move easily through the "water."
7. Seals are air-breathing animals, but they can remain under water for a considerable time.
8. They are expert divers and swimmers, but are exceedingly awkward on land.
9. Seals inhabit the cool waters of the temperate and polar regions and usually return to the same spot year after year to breed. 
10. They live in herds, and before they were hunted many of these herds "were of enormous size. 
11. They frequent rocks in shallow places and icebergs, where they come at breeding time and remain to rear their young. 
12. Most species are easily tamed, and they often form great attachment for their keepers and are easily taught ingenious and amusing tricks.

A fur seal rests on the rocks.

       The hair seal, which is the common seal of the Atlantic coast, has long, silky hair, and was once valuable for its skin and fat, called blubber. 

5 Facts About Hair Seals:

1. This seal was captured in large numbers off Newfoundland, Labrador, Jan Meyen Island and in the White Sea. 
2. The inhabitants of Greenland hunted these seals for food and clothing, but they took only a sufficient number to supply their needs. 
3. In many places these seals have been nearly exterminated by hunters, because the skins made good leather, and a valuable oil was extracted from the blubber. 
4. The hair-seal industry was really more important than the fur-seal industry, although it did not receive as much attention. 
5. The danger of exterminating these animals has become so imminent that international agreements restricting the hunting of the animals are routinely drafted signed and updated. 

• See Fur Seal Act of 1966 and Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972

       The fur seal or sea bear is highly valued for its fur, which consists of a thick, woolly hair next the skin, very fine and compact, usually of a dark brown color. Over this grows long, coarse hair, which is of some shade of gray. The fur seals are found in the water of the cool temperate or polar regions north and south of the equator.

More About Fur Seals from The Web:

• Northern Fur Seals at The Marine Mammal Center
• Northern Fur Seals at The Seattle Aquarium

Fur Seals Overcome Extinction On "Resurrection Island"

by National Geographic

Dodo

       The dodo an extinct genus of birds, said to be related to the pigeons. The dodo was a massive, clumsy bird, larger than a swan. and covered with down instead of feathers. It walked on short, ill-shaped legs and had wings and tail so short as to be useless for flight. The birds were once numerous on the island of Mauritius, but it has been two hundred years since the last one was seen. Several perfect specimens are preserved in the British Museum. They furnish the world's sole present knowledge of the bird. 

Scientists Finally Know The Real Reason 

Dodos Went Extinct by Grunge

Catbird

       A catbird is a common American thrush, so named because one of its calls sounds like the mewing of a cat. It is found throughout the Northern and Middle states, in thickets and shrubberies, where it lives an active existence, chiefly in the pursuit of insects. Its plumage is a deep slate color above and lighter below, with a reddish-brown patch on the lower tail coverts. Its song is varied and fine, largely in imitation of the songs of other birds. In winter it retires to the extreme southern parts of the United States, or even to Mexico and Central America.

More About Catbirds On The Web:

• Catbird Mew Calls by MyBackyardBirding
• Dominique Lalonde Films Nature of Gray Catbird