Elementary School Assembly Boost Students’ Confidence

Mendham Township, NEW JERSEY (October 18, 2019) – School assemblies can provide unique learning opportunities and at the same time reinforce many academic and character building goals. With the support of their local HSA, students at Mendham Township Elementary School (MTES) were treated to a rather different presentation on animals -- one that focused on rainforest animals!

The presentation started off with a reminder to students on how to create a friendly and low-fear environment for living creatures, i.e., being calm and keeping their hands quiet. This is great reinforcement for young students to act as a group and be able to be quiet, show patience, and listen for instructions on next steps. The presentation specialist discussed the rainforests around the world and how different animals live in specific climatic conditions in various continents.

The first animal introduced was the beautiful grey-feathered parrot from Africa. Her beautiful plumage included a stunning red tail. Students instantly grew quiet as her handler walked among the students, displaying the bird for young students to study up close.

Next came the milk snake from the Americas. Students learned how color-coding can help indicate whether an animal may be venomous. Of course, “Milky” the snake introduced during the presentation, was non-venomous, and he was happy to display how he liked to “cuddle” or wrap himself around the presenter.

The assembly also introduced other lizards and reptiles, including the blue-tongued skink from Australia. Students learned that some species evolved with only color as a form of protection. Did you know that the blue-tongued skink has only its blue tongue to protect itself from predators? When spotted by a predator, the blue-tongued skink hopes that by flicking its unusually colored tongue, it will trick its enemy into going away as it may consider the skink to be poisonous! And let’s not forget the forked tongue of the monitor lizard, which actually uses its tongue to capture food based on smell! The split tongue of this animal has sensors that help the lizard better sense the location of food.

With rapt attention, students listened to every word spoken by the presenter. Their eyes were fascinated by the animals being shown, their minds filled with questions. There never was a shortage for any volunteers wanting to interact with these rainforest animals. With hands filling the air with questions to be answered, or offering to hold an animal, students left the assembly gym feeling confident and were inspired to learn more.