Ane’s Animal Report

Second grade means learning how to write reports.  So Ane’s teacher has had the entire class working for the last few weeks on animal reports, about the animal of their choice.  The idea was that they would take notes on habitat, appearance, diet and babies, along with an interesting fact or two, and then write up a short paragraph about each topic for their animal report.

The class all were encouraged to choose an animal that they like, and to not pick the same animal as someone else so that everyone could present a different animal when the reports were all written.  Most of the kids went for more zoo-type animals, like koalas, pandas, elephants and orangutans (can’t just pick “monkey” – too many options).  Some chose more domestic animals, like horses and chickens.  And some went for the life aquatic – dolphins, orcas, and sharks.  (Yes, one girl in Ane’s class picked sharks, which was a report Tad could have written with his eyes shut, and probably asleep.)

What does Ane pick?  Clouded leopards.

Are there clouded leopard books in her class?  Nope.

Are there clouded leopard books at the library?  Nope.

What does her sucker of a mother do?  Buy a book off Amazon, and print up scads of information off the internet so she can write this report.

How did she pick clouded leopards, anyway?  Well, it all started with our annual trips to Point Defiance Zoo.  They are involved in a breeding program with a zoo in Thailand (where clouded leopards are native), so there have been breeding pairs at Point Defiance for the last few years.

Then, last year, a pair of cubs were born.  Ane was instantly in love with these cute little ones.

These two cubs, a boy and a girl, were paired off with other cubs and sent to other zoos to continue the breeding program.  But now, the mom and dad to the first pair have had another boy/girl pair of cubs, and Ane is dying to go and see them.

In the meantime, though, her report has been written, and she is supposed to illustrate her report with pictures of the clouded leopard.  She asked her teacher if she could just have some of our zoo pictures printed for her report.  Her teacher said that was fine.  Ane told me that she was relieved, because she “didn’t want to do a bad job on the drawings” for her report.

What a perfectionist.  No idea where she gets that.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 at 12:17 am and is filed under Children, School Days.
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