Tavi's Curled-Bark Scoop
When an acorn basket becomes too heavy, a squirrel invents and improves a bark scoop to move smaller loads into her pantry.
Play the quiz as a gameTavi the squirrel had gathered acorns beneath an oak tree. Now she wanted to move them into her pantry, a hollow stump nearby. She grabbed her basket and pulled. She strained, but the basket barely moved. Tavi's tail drooped. Gathering acorns had been easier than moving them!
"Maybe I need something smaller," she said. Tavi took a loose piece of bark from the ground. She imagined using it to scoop a few acorns from the basket. Then she could carry those acorns to the stump.
Before building, Tavi made a drawing in the dirt. Above it, she wrote the heading "Scoop Plan." Under it, she added a caption: "A few at a time." Looking at her plan made the big job seem possible.
Tavi slid the flat bark beneath some acorns and lifted it. The acorns rolled off both sides. She frowned and nearly tossed the bark away. Then she noticed how a dry leaf curled around a pebble. "My scoop needs sides!" she said.
She bent the bark into a curved shape and tied its edges in place with long grass. Now the scoop had a raised rim. Tavi tested it with three acorns. They stayed inside! She added one more, then stopped. "A small load is the point," she reminded herself.
Tavi carried scoop after scoop to the stump. Each trip felt easy, and the basket slowly emptied. When the last acorn reached the pantry, she grinned and patted her scoop. The flat bark had not worked, but changing its shape had helped her finish.