SCIENCE WORD OF THE WEEK!
Hello students and welcome to class this fine Monday! I hope you have had a wonderful weekend! I hear that Ellie and Edmond are heading to South America this week! That should be so exciting! I bet they will see some animals with prehensile tails! Prehensile is our word of the week too!
Prehensile (prē-ˈhen(t)-səl, –ˈhen-ˌsī(-ə)l): the ability to grab or hold something by wrapping around it.
Most of us think of tails when we think of prehensile limbs- such as monkeys (only monkeys that live in Central and South America have prehensile tails). Other appendages and body parts can be prehensile too- like a giraffe’s tongue or the lip of a black rhino. One of my favorite example of prehensile body part is Ellie’s trunk! The two proboscides (the lip like projections on an elephants trunk) are prehensile; they are capable of picking up a single blade of grass! Wow- who knew! Can you think of other animals who have prehensile body parts, like the panther chameleon below?
The Adventures of Ellie and Edmond 
Mom thinks I have a prehensile monkey tail because sometimes I grab her arm or her leg with it.
Love and licks,
Cupcake
Oh wow! That is cool :)!