Zany Zebra Day
2nd February 2023
Tuesday, 31st Jan, was a day full of plenty of stripes and patterns, all in black and white. There were even some zebra masks and face paint. It was wonderful to see the children getting so involved in Zebra Day.
Many classrooms started the day learning more about Grevy's Zebras and their stand out characteristics. Do you think you would be able to spot a Grevy's Zebra the next time you are on safari? (Maybe looking out for their white tummies, round ears and brown noses).
The thinking that surrounded the day was if there is a difference between donkeys and zebras? Are they closely related or are they very different? What do you think? Donkeys are said to live longer than a zebra - wonder if you can figure out why? Interesting to note that a ‘donkey’ in Kiswahili is a ‘punda’ and a ‘zebra’ in Kiswahili is ‘pundamilia’ - might give you a note as to if they are more similar or different…
The children were so shocked to find that there was a very special visitor in the quad eating all the grass. It was T-shirt, the DONKEY. The children got to take turns spending time with this friendly creature and some were even lucky enough to give him a stroke.
We were very fortunate to have gotten a visit from The Grevy's Zebra Trust who were even dressed up in their own zebra outfits. They shared that the Grevy's Zebras are endangered and that there are only a few thousand left. We are lucky enough to share an environment with the Grevy's Zebra and the Plain Zebra, but the Mountain Zebra does not live in these areas. We spoke about how we can do more to protect them, what more could you do in your home to help our planet and therefore, these ‘brown/grey donkeys’.
A fun anecdote that we learned to answer the well known question - is a zebra black with white stripes or white with black stripes - is that if you shaved a zebra it would be the same colour as a donkey! So the conclusion that we came up with after many discussions, debates and conversations is that zebras and donkeys are very similar, a donkey is in fact a stripey zebra!
