Unit 03 - Striped Possum’s Midnight Feast

1. Synopsis
2. Planning a Feast
3. Guest List

1. Synopsis

The premise of the activity is that a host rainforest animal, Striped Possum, invites many other nocturnal rainforest animals to her/his party. The role of the host may be played by the teacher or a child. The roles of the animal guests are played by the children in the class.

Striped Possum sends out invitations to come to a midnight feast to be held at the Luminescent Fairy Ring (the fungus Mycena chlorophanos) in the dell next to the waterfall.

Click here for an Invitation template

Every child chooses what type of animal guest they will be. Prior to the party they research the life of their animal. They find answers to the questions: Who am I? Where do I live? What do I eat? What do I do? What is special about me?

Structured information and images of each guest list animal can be found in the Resources Page.

Each child makes a hat, headdress or full body costume based on observable features of their animal which they wear to the feast. Many nocturnal animals are dull coloured, as they don’t want to be seen, but every animal on the guest list has some feature that can be represented by a child when creating their headdress or costume.

When the class gathers for the feast, every child is dressed as their animal. The host, Striped Possum, introduces each animal guest to the group. Each child gives a short account of who they are based on their research. During the party the children continue to role play by dancing as their animal and acting out special features such as a special call, noise or movement.

There are rules for the midnight feast. All guests can only eat party food, not anybody else, no matter where they are in the food chain. They have to be nice to all the other animals no matter how delicious they may be and everybody helps clean up afterwards.

2. Planning a Feast

To plan a successful feast you need to:

1. Issue an invitation
2. Ascertain children’s prior knowledge
3. Conduct and scaffold children’s animal inquiries
4. Organise children’s animal headdress and/or costume making
5. Identify and practice animal movements and sounds
6. Organise and prepare food for the feast
7. Create a fairy dell

Invitation
This text is available as a Formatted Invitation.

Dear (name of animal)
You are invited to attend
A Midnight Feast – A Nocturnal Nosh
Venue: The Luminescent Fairy Ring in the dell next to the waterfall
Time: Midnight
(… insert Day and Date …)
Looking forward to seeing you,
Your host, Striped Possum

Prior knowledge
Brainstorm what children know about animals of the rainforest.

Discuss the meanings of terms ‘diurnal’ (daytime) and ‘nocturnal’ (night-time) animals.

Discuss what differences there may be between animals that come out in daylight and those that come out in the dark. For example: Nocturnal animals are usually dull in colour with larger eyes to see better at night.

Discuss children’s knowledge of scientific terminology concerning animals.
See Definitions and Vocabulary

Animal inquiries
Each child is to represent an animal guest at the feast.

Read the guest list to the children and ask each child to choose an animal. Children may wish to double-up on animals. The choice is theirs

If a child wishes to be a rainforest animal that doesn’t appear on the list you can consult resource texts to locate further information.

At the feast, Striped Possum asks each child to introduce themselves as their animal.
To prepare for this, children inquire into their chosen animal’s life.

Children research the following questions:

Who am I?
Where do I live?
What do I eat (besides party food)?
What do I do?
What is special about me?

Children consult the Resources Page for a complete guest list, images and structured information.

Children prepare a short speech to give about their animal selves at the feast.

Costume and headdress making
Once the child has chosen their animal they can click on the thumbnail image in Unit 3 Resources Page to enlarge the image.

Ask children to look carefully at the features of each animal and make decisions as to what to recreate and represent in their costume and/or headdress design. Each animal on the guest list has a feature that can be reproduced in an imaginative way.

Children use a variety of materials to make their headdress and/or costume.

Animal movements and sounds
Ask children to imagine how they will represent their animal in movement and dance.

Identify key features of the animal that can be represented and practice movements and the sounds they make.

At the feast, have music that will encourage the children to express their animal selves in movement. A dance element may also be incorporated into the introduction of guests.

Food
Guests can only eat party food and not each other so it’s very important to have a suitable range of foods for feasting. Children negotiate the types of food to be eaten. Parents and carers can be called upon to assist with food provision and preparation.

Class negotiation: Children discuss how the guests may eat, the kinds of food to have available and how strictly they will imitate their animal’s eating habits. Will herbivores be able to eat meat products? Will carnivores eat vegetables? Will the Giant Blue Earthworm and the Rainforest Snail have to stick with eating dirt and leaf litter? Or, will everybody eat party food? The children decide.

Creating a fairy dell
One of the magic mysteries of the rainforest is the glowing fairy ring created by the luminescent fungus, Mycena chlorophanos, a delicate cup shaped mushroom.

At night-time in the rainforest, this fungus emits an eerie glow from the fruiting bodies (the mushroom) and the mycelium (fungus filaments). The light is created by an oxidation - reduction chemical reaction when a substance called luciferin reacts with an enzyme called luciferase, with the consequent emission of light. While fireflies and glow worms also light up to attract prey or mates, the purpose of bioluminescence in fungi is not well understood. Perhaps its purpose is to light up the forest for a midnight feast.

To create the fungi in the dell, paint Styrofoam or cardboard cups bright green and fasten the cups right-side up in groups to furniture in the classroom. To represent the glowing mycelium, paint string the same color and decorate around the room.

To locate images of the fungus Google “Mycena chlorophanos” on Australian pages.

3. Guest List

The guest list is briefly described here. The same list complete with images and detailed information is located in the Resources Page where children can see an image of their animal and research information about its life.

Nocturnal animals are different from diurnal rainforest animals. They can be very noisy (frogs, katydids, curlews and owls); they can be silent stalkers (geckoes, pythons); they can be cautious vegetarians (gliders, possums, flying foxes, bandicoots, tree kangaroos and rats) and carnivorous hunters (quolls, antechinus, platypus and crickets), and they can be luminescent and beautiful in their own way (glowworms, fireflies, giant blue earthworms). Every animal on this list has observable features, movements and/or sounds that can be imitated and represented by young children

The guest list consists of insects, worms, snails, spiders, frogs, lizards, snakes, mammals and birds.

1. Striped Possum (Marsupial) – our host has beautiful black and white stripes running down its body; it smells bad and snorts a lot and it eats wood boring insects from the trunks of trees.
2. Boobook Owl (Bird) – calls “boo book, boo book” at nighttime
3. Glowworm (Insect larvae) – glows in the dark
4. Giant Blue Earthworm (Annelid) – besides being long and blue, its spit glows in the dark
5. Rainforest Snail (Mollusc) – its shell keeps it from drying out
6. Leaf Katydid (Insect) – eats leaves and looks like a leaf
7. White-kneed Cricket (Insect) – is, unusually, a carnivorous insect. It is brown coloured with white knees
8. White-lipped Tree Frog (Amphibian) – the world’s largest tree frog, is also common around people’s homes and gardens
9. Northern Barred Frog (Amphibian) – lives in the mountains and lays eggs in damp soil, not in water
10. Orange-thighed Tree Frog (Amphibian) – small frog with red-orange eyes, bright orange legs whose call sounds like “wreeek” plus a series of trills
11. Australian Wood Frog (Amphibian) – small frog found in lowland pools, makes a sound like a duck
12. Ornate Nursery Frog (Amphibian) – a very small frog with a dark “W” strip on its back that makes a “beep” sound like a car horn
13. Stony Creek Frog (Amphibian) – turns lemon yellow at nighttime and makes a “whirr” sound
14. Ring Tailed Gecko (Reptile) – has beautiful stripes across its body and eats a lot
15. Northern Leaf-tailed Gecko (Reptile) – Australia’s largest gecko, it is found only in rainforest and had a tail shaped like a round leaf
16. Python (Reptile)– a big snake with a jungle pattern on its back
17. Slaty Grey Snake (Reptile) – likes to be near water; has a glossy black back and a shiny white belly
18. Northern Spotted-tailed Quoll (Marsupial) – has big white spots all over its back and tail and lots of small teeth
19. Mahogany Glider (Marsupial) – a very rare animal with a black stripe down its back and a bushy black tail
20. Daintree River Ringtail Possum (Marsupial) – big brown eyes, small ears and a caramel coloured coat
21. Long-tailed Pygmy Possum (Marsupial) – this tiny possum looks like its wearing a black eye mask
22. White Lemuroid Possum (Marsupial) – has thick white fur, brown eyes and a bushy white tail
23. Spectacled Flying Fox (Placental) – large, squabbling megabat with black and orange fur
24. Water Rat (Placental) – huge, water loving rat with a black back, golden belly, a black and white tail and small ears
25. Long-nosed Bandicoot (Marsupial – has a long nose and makes a sound like a trumpet
26. Antechinus (Marsupial) – always very hungry and walks like Charlie Chaplin’s clown, with big broad feet stuck out at the side of its body
27. Lumholtz’s Tree Kangaroo (Marsupial) – orange coloured fur and a black nose
28. Orange-footed Scrub Fowl (Bird) – has large orange legs and feet and shiny black feathers
29. Duck-billed Platypus (Monotreme) – has a duck’s bill and large webbed feet
30. Bush Stone-Curlew (Bird) – long legs, sharp bill, big golden eyes, calls out a wailing “weeer, eearr”