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Story Once upon a time, a kindergarten class took a trip to the
zoo. Now zoos are pretty magical places for most children, but this
zoo had a particular magic about it…the animals knew the children's
names! As they walked by the giraffe enclosure, the giraffes stretched
their long necks over the fence and called out "Hello, Ainsley
and Amelia and Jonathan and Jeremy!" And when the children
walked by the bear habitat, a shaggy black bear raised its head
and grunted, "Hi there, Katherine and Michael and Theodore."
The elephants trumpeted for Christopher and Clarence. And when the children leaned over the railing and looked into a pond where turtles were sunning themselves on logs, Christina and Cameron and Gregory were most surprised to see their names painted on the turtle's shells. Nearby, a frog on a lily pad croaked out a greeting to Andre Joel. A Scotty dog walking with his owner barked a cherry hello to Jennifer and Jed Henry. Even the bunnies and squirrels that roamed wild throughout the zoo knew special names. The squirrels chattered to Lindsey and Grace Louise. The bunnies hopped right up to Benjamin and Heather and Morgan. There was even a marmalade cat who meowed to Celia Jane and Harley. Now how do you suppose all these animals knew the children's names? Well, many of these animals were brought to live in this zoo far from their homes and they missed their old friends and all of the adventures that they had shared. One of the zookeepers, a quiet woman who loved caring for all the animals, noticed that her friends were sad. So she said to them "You bring such joy to all the children who come to visit the zoo. What can I do to help you feel better about living here so far from your homes?" And the animals replied, " We want to help the children know how special they are and we have an idea that will help each child to learn the magic of her/his name. Can you help us with our idea?" Then the animals whispered to their friend, the zookeeper… "Now, the magic of this zoo is- we can each turn ourselves into a puzzle that spells a child's name. And when the children play with their name puzzles, they turn back into the animals! We thought we'd call ourselves Puzzle Pals. If we teach you how to recognize the names that go with each animal clan, will you go into your workshop and make a puzzle for each name?" Well, the zookeeper was delighted with this idea and she knew that it would help both the animals in the zoo and the children who got a Puzzle Pal to play with at home. And the zoo animals weren't lonely ever again. |
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