What the Skunk?!

My darling dog has been sprayed by a skunk not once, not twice, but THREE times this year.  

Who me?

She is the world's friendliest dog and I'm pretty convinced that she thinks our neighborhood skunk is my parents' cat, Abraham Lincoln, as he has similar markings.  Nevertheless, my dear canine managed to ignore all skunky warnings and was sprayed directly in her mouth.  Poor Mugs and poor Miss French Fry.  You know that old wives' tale about a tomato bath getting rid of skunk odor?  Well, it's a bunch of bull-oney.  It has been at least a month and about 30 baths later and I still smell the occasional wafts of skunk emanating from her little poochy self.

I digress.  I wanted to turn this stanky experience into something much more positive, so I did some research and found out some cool facts about skunks.  For example, skunks are nocturnal and eat just about anything (which explains why ours lurks in our backyard near the compost pile), annnnd, a group of skunks is called a surfeit.  Here's how the class discussion went:

MFF:  What other animals are nocturnal besides skunks?

Kid 1: Bats!

Kid 2: Cats!

Kid 3: Owls!

Kid 4: VAMPIRES!

This is why I teach, right?

To channel Flower the skunk from Disney's Bambi, the students' final pieces were set atop small collaged flowers.  Remember Flower?  

Yeesh, I still can't watch that movie without falling apart into a pile of tears.

These ceramic skunks were made by my 2nd grade artists.  The googly eyes were a funny last minute touch!

This one is super textured with a fork as the student wanted it to look like a "tough skunk."

Smell ya later Arties!