Photos by me (Just trust me, the banana will makes sense if you read my whole story)
Hello people of this world,
Today I have a special blog post for you… In my ELA class this year the whole grade read a book called Squirm (By Carl Hiaasen). It was an amazing book that touches on very important topics, like family, relationships, and one of the biggest and most important topics/themes in the book was animals, more specifically endangered animals. I will talk more about this later. For now I’ll tell you about the premise of the book. The protagonist is a character named Billy, and boy oh boy, is he obsessed with snakes. When he was young his dad left him and he has not talked to him since. But, Billy comes up with a plan to pay him a visit in Montana. Billy, his dad, and Summer (If you read the book, you find out more about her) go on some pretty crazy adventures together. To give you a teaser, one of them includes Summer banging a stick loudly on a tree. In the book the dad goes on secret missions with a drone trying to stop a poacher from killing endangered animals. I’m not going to write anymore because I didn’t want to give any spoilers! I thought it was a great book and I highly recommend you read it.
After we finished reading the book, we started our own extremely fun adventure (A.K.A. assignment) First we all picked an endangered animal to research. I chose the coolest endangered animal ever!!! Can I get a drum roll please?!? …The Chimpanzee!!!!!!!!!! A fun fact about chimpanzees is that they are often mistaken for monkeys, but in reality they are great apes. And they are the closest relatives to humans! After a week or two of research we started to write our education story about our chosen animal. It had to be written from their perspective. I decided to make mine an educational fake diary of a chimpanzee. Her name is Chia the Chimpanzee, and she has an amazing little (annoying but cute) little sister named Molly. I’ll give you more of my story later in the post. I think that writing stories about endangered animals is an interesting, informative, and creative way to inform people about this serious problem.
After writing, editing, and revising our stories, we got to move on to one of the funnest parts! We got to make handmade books with local artist, Peg Gignoux. She visited us several times to help us through the process. First we painted pieces of paper in different colors and patterns. After that we folded our books and started to collage them. We had to show an animal at one point in the book, so I put mine hanging from a tree. We basically have it be an inside picture and an outside picture. For mine the outside is like looking through a shrub. I chose this because I think it really puts into perspective that these habitats belong to the animals and we are more like quiet observers that really shouldn’t be there at all, much less destroy the habitats. Loss of habitat from humans is the main thing that is putting Chimpanzees on the endangered animal list. You can read more about this in my emotional roller-coaster story. After finishing up our entire book, cover to cover (We literally made two covers!),we printed out our stories and pasted them on. And boom! Just like that you have a homemade endangered animals story book. Just kidding, it took a lot of work, but making the story was really fun, and also put a new perspective on habitat loss and animals going extinct. I think learning a lot about it makes it feel more real. That once an animal is extinct it’s gone forever, and never coming back. It also affects every ecosystem and animal around it, even if it is their predator or prey. One animal going extinct causes other animals to suffer or even go extinct also. It just shows that even just sitting in your house instead of deciding to go to a protest or even just supporting laws that help endangered animals can make so many animals go extinct. You. Can. Make. A. Difference. Just remember that if nothing else. This is a project that makes you think. In fact, it made me think so much that during my research for the book I found a very interesting site. It’s called Chimp Haven. I explored their website and they have these amazing educational videos that show the chimps and the place they get taken care of. My favorite parts of the videos are when they would show the cute chimpanzees and they would make these little squealing sounds. I actually used those sounds in my story. After looking through the site I knew I had to do something. I could not just sit there knowing all these animals were going extinct. You may be thinking, “What could she possibly do, she’s just a child.” Well I thought that too for a little. But the truth is you can do things even if it’s small. After reminding myself that, I hit the donate button on the website, I gave 25 dollars, and my parents said they would match whatever I gave! They also send you a newsletter about what’s going on there if you donate. I love getting mail! I had paid for about three meals for a chimpanzee. Like I said before it can be small, but you have to do something. I’ll leave the link to Chimp Haven at the bottom of this in case you want to see the website or watch the video too. (Or maybe even donate pleeeeease!!!) To give you an idea of what this is like I’m going to give you a hypothetical. One of my best friends has the cutest Golden Retriever, who is less than a year old. Imagine if a shelter carrying all the Golden Retrievers got knocked down because under it was valuable minerals or to build a new bank. And in the process all the dogs got killed. Who cares, right? That’s what we are doing to chimpanzees! This is what I mean: we do care. And we should care just as much about chimpanzees and other endangered animals. Now I would like to give two shout-outs: One to the amazing local artist who devoted her time to helping the grade make their book, Peg Gignoux. She is a truly inspiring artist. And I love her creative twists and suggestions for me. The second shout-out I would like to give is especially important to me because we are nearing the end of the school year. Mrs. Donnelly has been an amazing teacher. Throughout the whole school year she has been kind, supportive, and a great teacher. She has also been a big help editing my animal story. I’m really going to miss having her as a teacher. Below I’m going to show the first paragraph of my story. Please tell me what you think in the comment section! I love hearing from you! Don’t be shy! If you want to read my whole story go to the Gateway Building and look on the edge of the table closest to the doors to leave the building. If you see a green book that says ” Dear Diary ” or a cover that says “I AM NOT A MONKEY!”, then that definitely isn’t mine. Just kidding, it is! If you do not go to my school do not worry. Exactly one week from now I will post my whole story so you can read it too! Anyways, thanks for reading. And remember, do what you can to protect all animals. (Including Humans).
Story:
Dear Diary,4/11/2019
I’ve finally been able to squeeze in some time to write to you! My real name the scientists call me is Pan troglodytes, but you can call me Chia the Chimpanzee. The humid, wet air is pressing against my dark fur. But I don’t mind, I like it here in the African rainforests. But before I get into other things, I just want to make one thing clear. I. Am. Not. A. Monkey. There are monkeys and great apes. I am a great ape. My pet peeve is when people call me a monkey. I hate it. Other than that, I am not a picky chimp! I love lots of things! Ugh, my sister, Molly, keeps begging me to play with her. We love to socialize and play! I woke up around 6:30 and immediately started foraging for food. Now, after picking a fig from a fig tree, I’m having some juicy, crunchy, and delicious fruit. These figs are so good I could eat a whole tree full of them. We have to avoid eating plants like Devil’s Trumpet because they are poisonous to us. Then again, based on the name, you might have expected that. Either way, I love fruit! Huh, what’s that flash of yellow in the distance! OH NO!!!!!! I have to get Molly and me to safety now! There is a c____
Link to Chimp Haven (Look at it pleeeease, if not just for cute animal videos. But donating is also very great.):
