By Tia Shun and Sab Moneda
Year 12 Senior Social Studies

To mark the beginning of July and a start for the Year 12 Social Studies Internal, ‘Blood, Horns and Ivory,’ the students of Westlake Girls shone a light on the issue of endangered animals with local ECE students within our Pupuke Kahui Ako (Community of Learning).

From telling stories about how we can save our gorilla’s habitats by reducing the amount of palm oil we purchase, to making masks to show our support for the giraffes, it’s safe to say that the entire day was a huge success for the senior Social Studies students.

The amount of research and effort put into this project was incredible from every angle. Believe it or not, up to 150 endangered species are killed every day due to poaching and deforestation, and it can be hard to relay such heartbreaking facts to people with little hearts.

We spent days leading up to the event cutting out and pasting little elephants, making cute story books of lions and gorillas and even decorating the classrooms to make them as eye-catching as possible for the little ones. As each and everyone’s stations were decorated and presented strikingly, we knew that the kids would have the best time doing activities, all while learning about the endangered species.