~The Land of No Skunks~

The fourth graders I taught this week really thought it was interesting to think about the fact that there is no such animal as a skunk in Japan. Skunks do not live in Japan.

I am still laughing to myself thinking about the roadtrip I took around the western U.S. with my Japanese archery teacher from Japan. We passed many dead skunks and just assumed that he knew what the stench was. The next time I visited him in Japan I found out that there are no skunks in Japan and that he has no idea what a skunk smells like. Guess I can assume what he thought as we passed the dead skunks on the road!

There is an animal in Japan that is very common in Japanese culture that we do not have here called a tanuki, a Racoon Dog. They kind of look like racoons with dog bodies on the bottom. So, the fourth graders thought that this tidbit of information was interesting as well.

The two facts could be used to lead into lessons on geography, evolution, customs, cultures, countries, how one assumes that things in one's native country are the same as things in other countries, etc.