Funny & Mandy, Wild Ponies on the Beach
An Online Adventure for Grades K-3 Children and their Parents
Would you like to see wild ponies playing with their friends in the
ocean?
You can see them at Assateague Island
National Seashore.
Assateague and Chincoteague are islands just off the coast of Maryland
and Virginia. That's where the wild ponies in our story live. The park
rangers that take care of the islands have numbers for all the ponies.
The numbers are like their names. That's how the rangers can keep track
of the ponies. The children at the Worcester Country School near Assateague
Island wanted the ponies to have names. So they went to the island and
with help of the park superintendent, they put names for the ponies into
their computers.
One of their favorite ponies is Funny.
Funny lives in a group with other ponies. All of the ponies on the island
live in small groups. Funny is a mostly white pony with a little brown
spot on his forehead three big brown spots that look like clouds on his
back. He has a beautiful white mane and tail. When he runs, which he loves
to do in the sand, his mane and tail make him look like he's flying.
Funny's good friend is Mandy. Mandy is a pretty girl pony who is cream
colored all over. She has a very thick cream-colored mane and tail. You
can usually see her flicking her long tail to keep flies away from her.
She hates flies, but she loves Sam, the Cattle Egret who comes to sit on
her back and catch the flies before they bite her.
- Draw a nice picture of Funny, Mandy, and Sam either on the computer
or on paper. (Hint: if you make your pictures on the computer, you can
make them into a wonderful movie later.) Why do you think Sam likes to
ride on Mandy's back? Remember to make Funny look like he's flying.
Here are some places on the Information Highway that will help you learn
what Funny, Mandy, and Sam look like and what the beaches look like where
they live:
"Hey," I like that picture you drew!" says Funny. "Mandy,
stop hitting me in my face with your tail."
"Sorry, I'm swatting flies."
"Don't worry about the flies, I'm catching them," said (well,
who said that?).
"Let's go down to the beach and take a dip in ocean," Funny
suggested.
"I don't want to get wet," said Sam. "It messes up my
feathers. And flies don't like the breeze along the water. They don't like
the water either."
"You can wait on the sand while we swim," suggested Mandy.
"I think I will build a sand castle," Sam said.
"Now, what kind of sand castle would a crazy bird build?"
said Funny.
"I've never seen a bird build a sand castle before," said
Mandy. "Maybe it will be a sand bird nest or a sand bird house, or
. . . .
- Draw a picture of Sam's sand castle or nest or house or . . . .
Here are some places on the Information Highway that will show you some
sand art work. I wonder what you'll help Sam build? Can you find the picture
of the sand castle and the computer?
The children who go to the school near Assateague Island have an art
teacher who is a great sand castle builder. AND, he teaches the children
how to build wonderful castles, too. Wouldn't that be fun to learn in art?
While Sam was building his sand masterpiece, Funny and Mandy went for
a swim in the ocean.
"I love the waves," shouted Mandy to Funny. "See if you
can catch me!"
Mandy and Funny raced through the waves along the edge of the ocean.
They stopped when then saw some people up ahead. The people were playing
in ocean just like Mandy and Funny.
"Let's get our picture taken," Funny suggested. Mandy and
Funny walked slowly up to the people so that the people wouldn't be afraid.
"Smile pretty and stand still," said Mandy. The people ran
from the water and a lady grabbed her camera. She snapped pictures of Mandy
and Funny from a safe distance. Sam flew in for the last of the pictures.
"Let's feed the ponies," said a little boy.
"No," said the lady, "our food is not good for the ponies.
We shouldn't feed them."
"They know the park rules," said Mandy. "You can't catch
me now!" she told Funny, and she raced back to where Sam built his
castle.
- Draw pictures of the ponies in the waves, the ponies and Sam getting
their pictures taken, and the lady telling the little boy not to feed the
ponies. You can go back to Assateague National Seashore on the Information
Highway if you need some ideas for your pictures. Do you know why you shouldn't
feed the ponies? Do you know why you shouldn't get close to the ponies?
After their swim, Mandy, Sam, and Funny decided to go over the dunes
and back into the little island forest to find their families.
- Draw Mandy, Sam, and Funny walking over the sand dunes to meet their
families and have dinner. What do you think they will have for dinner?
What do you think they will have to drink?
- If you did all your pictures on the computer, put them into a slide
show so that you can have a nice little movie about the ponies to show
all your friends.
- If you want to learn more about the island ponies, you might want to
read the National Park Service books about the ponies by Larry Points and
Andrea Jauck. You can order these from the Assateague Island National Seashore
Visitor Center or get them when you visit.
- For those of you who are reading big books, you'll want to read Misty
of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry. Ms. Henry also wrote a book about
Misty's foal. If you want to see pictures of the covers of these books,
go to Simonsays and do a
book search by typing in the title of the book. (You'll have fun doing
this for other book titles, too.)
- If you are too young to read the Misty books by yourself, ask your
parents to read them to you. These books will tell you so much about the
wild ponies of the barrier islands of Maryland and Virginia. See if you
can find these islands on a map. Maybe some day your parents will take
you to see the wild ponies on Assateague and Chicoteague.
Neighhhh!!! Come visit us!
