elinor wonders why

Ms. Mole's Glasses - When Ms. Mole forgets her glasses at school, Elinor and her friends follow her to return them. Ms. Mole can't see anything without her glasses! The kids travel throughout Animal Town, just missing Ms. Mole at every turn. During their travels, the kids realize Ms. Mole has been shopping and getting around using different senses. By the time they finally reach Ms. Mole and return her glasses, she's got all her shopping done without them. Cool! Elinor Stops the Squish - Elinor and her friends want to bring Ms. Mole a cupcake for her birthday, but they're worried it will get squished on the way to school. The kids find inspiration in nature when they observe how different animals/creatures stay safe using their shells as a defense mechanism. Elinor, Ari and Olive use this idea as inspiration to make a shell around the cupcake using a hard coconut. Because of the kids' hard work and ingenuity, the cupcake makes it all the way to school without being squished, just in time for Ms. Mole to enjoy her present. Yum!

The Unsinkable Lynx - It's a very snowy day and Elinor, Ari and Olive meet a new friend, Gael the lynx, who has just moved to Animal Town. The kids decide to play some fun SNOW TAG, and it quickly becomes clear that Gael is a master at the game. He moves impossibly fast in the snow. How does he do it? After some careful observations, the kids discover that Gael's paws are much wider than theirs, which helps him walk on top of the snow instead of sinking down into it. This discovery inspires the kids to make their own wide snowshoes! Rocky the Rock - Ari spots a funny looking rock with a smile on it and decides to make it his new friend, Rocky. When it's time for a snack, Ari notices that Rocky doesn't eat anything, which makes him worried. How will Ari take care of his friend Rocky? Enlisting the help of his friends, they wonder, are rocks alive? They make observations about what living things do and compare them to what Rocky does, which sparks a lively class debate. The kids decide that rocks are not alive, but that they can still be friends with nature.

Elinor is friends with a chickadee bird she names Chicky, but when snow covers the yard, she starts to worry about how Chicky will find food in the winter. She and her friends then observe that birds all have a unique way of finding food during the winter months, called foraging. This new knowledge inspires Elinor, Olive and Ari to build bird feeders to make food easier to find for their feathery friends!

Elinor Wonders Why encourages children to follow their curiosity, ask questions when they don't understand and find answers using science inquiry skills. The main character Elinor, the most observant and curious bunny rabbit in Animal Town, will introduce children ages 3-5 to science, nature and community through adventures with her friends.

Leave It To Ari - Elinor, Olive and Ari are helping Ari's dad rake the leaves in their yard, which leads them to wonder, "Who rakes the leaves in the forest?" They need more observations, so they head out to the forest, where they look at the leaves more closely and notice that some of them are fresh, others are a little worn, and others are really old and crumbling. The kids also notice some of the dirt on the ground has little bits of leaves in it, and they realize that the leaves that fall on the forest floor eventually get old and go back into the soil, just like the compost that Ari's Dad makes. Snow Friend - Elinor, Ari and Olive are building a giant Snow Friend, but there isn't enough snow to finish their masterpiece. Luckily, the next day brings fresh new snow, but this snow won't stay packed at all - it just falls apart. After they go in the house to warm up, they observe some snow melt and get sticky, and they figure out a solution - warm up the snow! When they put their plan into action, the warm snow has just the right stickiness for packing. Just in time to build a super Snow Friend. Hurrah!