Happy Orangutan Caring Week, fellow educators! In honor of this international event, PEN uploaded 10 new orangutan education materials to our Resource Library. In addition, we wanted to share a few fun ideas and resources that you can use in your orangutan education efforts this week.
Orangutan Handprint © Orangutan Foundation
Compare Hands: Ask your students to look closely at the line patterns on their hands and bend their thumbs. Explain that orangutans have unique line patterns (no two hands are the same!) and opposable thumbs to hold and manipulate objects just like we do. Print the orangutan handprint to compare and contrast hands.
Measure Arm Spans: An orangutan’s arms stretch out longer than their bodies – up to 8 feet from fingertip to fingertip in the case of very large males. Ask a student to spread their arms out, use a measuring tape to measure their arm span, and compare it to the width of a very large male orangutan’s arm span.
Brachiate Like An Orangutan: Orangutans are arboreal and usually travel by swinging from one tree limb to another using their arms. Demonstrate how to brachiate (alternating hand over hand) and ask your students to do the same.
Orangutan Beard © Sumatran Orangutan Society
Wear An Orangutan Beard: Sumatran Orangutan Society created an orangutan beard mask for their "Ape-ril" fundraising campaign. Now everyone can "grow" beards and raise awareness for orangutans!
Create A Selfie Message: Download PEN's selfie templates and send us an e-mail, post on our Facebook wall, or tweet us on Twitter with your Orangutan Caring Week messages!
The goal of Orangutan Caring Week is to build a "critical mass of concerned voices" every November. This year's theme is "Sincere Commitment Through Positive Action."
Thank you for joining PEN and our colleagues in promoting orangutan conservation education far and wide during this worldwide event!
© Cyril Ruoso / Biosphoto