The Pod Squad- Kid’s Advocacy Letters
During our school visits we often ask students to write a letter to an adult living outside of their household. In these letters we ask them to discuss what they learned from our program, what excites them about the whales, and what they have done in their homes to make them “orca safe”. We also ask that they advocate for the whales by asking the recipient of their letter to make a change in his/her own environmental footprint using suggestions included with the letter. Adult recipients are then requested to make five changes in their daily habits, in the student’s name, and then send the results to our offices (click here to see the results) . Once we receive the adult’s response, we send the initiating student a pack of orca trading cards as a reward, as well as thanking them for using their voice and story to change the world they live in.
Below is a sample of some of these amazing letters:
Yesterday I learned that orcas are endangered. To help them, I will: try to use the car less and use less electricity. Will you help orcas, too? Choose 5 things on the back of this paper. Please mail this paper when you are done. Thank You. P.S. Check off things you did on the back of this paper.
I am very concerned about the Killer Whales population and I hope you will help. Read the instructions on the back of this page. Do everything you can to help the Killer whales! Even if only one person does this, it still can make a difference, even a child. I would really appreciate it if you everything to help the Killer Whales! Thank you very much for your help!
The southern resident Killer whales are endangered! You can do many things to help them orcas are fascinating creatures they can see through their ears by using a interesting strategy called echolocation. Echolocation is when they make a sound that bounces off an object and back to them. They mostly do that for hunting, Killer Whales can swim up to the high speeds of 35 mph. Orcas have a thick layer of blubber to keep them warm in frigid waters. When they over heat they use a process called thermo regulation to cool off. There used to be 120 southern resident orcas but now there only 88. There are 3 different pods or groups that they swim in called the J, K, L pods. The L pod has 41 orcas, the J Pod has 28 orcas left. The K Pod only has 19 orcas left so please help them!
Dear Mema and Papas,
Yesterday my Friend’s mom came to school and told us about the orca whales around Washington. She told us all about them. Then she told us a bunch of ways we could help them. Here are some examples:
1. Turn off lights to save electricity. 2. Use non-bleach toilet paper 3. Turn off the water when you are brushing your teeth. Recycle/use recycled paper. Together we can save these cool mammals and their food. Thank you for helping.
Recently I have learned about Southern Resident Killer Whales. Killer Whales are in all different pods. The three most popular pods are J, K, and L. Pods are all different they can make different sounds, talk to each other with noise, and even swim different. I also learned that their favorite food is Chinook Salmon. Their food is very important to the whales, that their food is swimming away and they need to swim to another are to get some more, and if they do that they can actually go into unprotected areas like Canadian waters. Whales are very sensitive to engines on boats and paddles on Kayaks and canoes. One thing that I did not know about whale was they have belly buttons and can see with their ears. I had no ideas whales are very unique. Things I’m going to do to help whales is to take a cloth bag grocery shopping with me. Also turning off my lights in my room and turning off my computer than putting it to sleep, also instead of using my plastic water bottle, replacing it with my steel one. I’ll also put my charger and other electronics on a power strip and maybe even walking or riding my bike to school. You can make a commitment by filling out the form and sending it back to the following address. If you send it back I will learn more about whales.
(Check back, as we change these frequently)