My animal book
This year in 6th grade Language Arts, we read and annotated the novel Squirm. This book has themes of family dynamics, doing what is right, Native Americans, and most of all, poaching.
To go deeper into this prominent theme in this book, the whole grade chose an endangered species to study. This is where our project began. After we had all of the information about our animals (I chose the giant Aldabra tortoise), we started writing our animal stories. These stories were written from the animal’s point of view and showcased their struggles from problems like habitat loss, poaching, or invasive species. These stories were meant to convince the reader to help the animal or just keep them aware of the world’s endangered species.
Before we were able to finish writing and reviewing our stories, local artist Peg Gignoux came to our classroom to help make these homemade books (see above). We didn’t start this project by putting the books together, but by coloring and texturizing the paper using materials including paint, watercolor, printers, and rollers. After we finished prepping the paper, we were able to start our books. To do this, we picked up a piece of large paper that was covered with watercolor. We folded and marked this paper, and somehow, after all of this folding, it became a book with flippable pages. This was still just a sheets of colored paper, so we layered sheets of the prepped paper using Mod Podge and created the story using pictures. During this whole process, we continued writing and drafting our story so we could add important details in these illustrations. It was so much fun to work with Peg, and when we finished, the classes thanked her and said goodbye.
After we finished decorating our books and finalized our stories, we printed our writing on colored paper and our teacher cut out the paragraphs with fun scissors. When everyone had finished, we displayed them on a table in the hallway of our school. If you want to read my book, it is called Alone in Aldabra. I hope you enjoy!
