Teacher's Guides for Orangutan Houdini
This guide offers activities to integrate Orangutan Houdini into English language arts, mathematics, science and social studies curricula. Art and drama are used as a teaching tool throughout the guide and opportunities for students to engage in technology for further learning are also identified.
It is designed for students in kindergarten through fifth grade and has been reviewed by both teachers and orangutan scientists.
Click here for Teacher's Guide for Orangutan Houdini (downloadable PDF 635KB)
Please feel free to provide Laurel with feedback. And most of all, enjoy!!
Additional educational materials are available below.
How Can I Help Orangutans?
There are many ways you can help orangutans and other species. Here are a few:
1. Write a letter on orangutans to your local or school newspaper.
2. Do a school project on orangutans or palm oil
3. Organize a day to highlight orangutans at your school. You can ask people to wear orange. Or to be silent (like orangutans).
4. Hold a palm-oil free bake sale and donate money to for orangutan rehabilitation.
5. Hand out copies of educational material on palm oil and orangutans. You can find some examples at http://redapes.org/action
6. Share an article on orangutans on social media.
7. See the "How Can I Help?" worksheet from Sumatran Orangutan Society (Download PDF 428KB).
8. Check out other lists of how you can help, including from Mongabay.
Additional Educational Materials
You can find many lesson plans on the rainforest at Mongabay. This includes lessons on: agriculture, deforestation, logging, the water cycle, photosynthesis, exploring ecosystems, scientific inquiry and more. You can also find interviews with scientists, career advice and links to other sites.
Laurel Neme is also partnering with the Sumatran Orangutan Society to share their Schools Pack. This pack was created to support teaching about rainforests, orangutans, endangered species and conservation. By exploring the rainforests of Sumatra, we hope that your pupils will understand how important it is to protect this precious ecosystem, and become inspired to help us in our mission to save the Sumatran orangutan and its forest home. We have created materials to support learning in literacy, numeracy, science, geography, citizenship and art, so that you have lots of opportunities to incorporate rainforests into your lessons and achieve key learning objectives. The resources also support the development of key skills such as creativity, communication, team work and problem solving. The pack is divided into two age groups: 5-7, and 7-11. Not all the activities will take an entire lesson to complete, so you can mix and match to create an engaging and interactive session.
Download to read more:
Worksheets for SOS Schools Pack Ages 7-11 for kids (Click to Download PDF: 4.5MB)
The SOS Schools Pack Ages 5-7 Instructions and Resources for Teachers (Click to Download PDF: 508KB)
Worksheets for SOS Schools Pack Ages 5-7 for kids (Click to Download PDF: 2.5MB)
And here's a fun word search from Orangutan Outreach:
For Media Inquiries, Events, Speaking Engagements and School visits:
Twitter: @LaurelNeme
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She specializes in bringing together diverse perspectives — from farmers and indigenous groups to high-level policymakers — to create positive solutions that protect wildlife while improving the livelihoods of those living near the animals.