Our Gr.7/8 class watched a movie called Project Nim and here are my thought on the movie.
Something I found disturbing is that they would let Nim smoke a joint It is enough that it is illegal but letting a chimp that is not even a year old is just really disturbing. Then they would let him drink alcohol. It is bad enough that a person drinks and drives so who knows what a chimp would do when they are drunk. The electric fence that they had at the one place that Nim went to they had a electric fence so chimps would not commit suicide, and so they would not drowned each other if they do that you should move them with a chimp they like so they don’t kill each other. Test lab why would you send any kind of animal there especially when they are young they are going to die quick if you are sending them there at least wait till their older.

Something that made me happy in this movie was that Nim was learning sign language so quickly so it was really motivating. In the middle of the book, the new student Joyce was introduced to Nim but Nim bit her after the first few days. It made me happy that he only bit Joyce once . At the end when he was at  the Black Stallion Ranch and Stephanie decided to go visit Nim and she went into the cage. He was punishing her for leaving him for so long but at least he did not kill her in his own cage. He easily could have just like the poodle.

There are differences I saw between the book (Half Brother) and the movie(Project Nim). I thought that Nim was a lot more aggressive then Zan. In Project Nim they did not try to take Nim back like Ben and Sara did in Half Brother. I thought they would, but they did not try at all. Nim went to a testing lab but Zan did not, thanks to Peter. They let Nim drink alcohol and smoke joints and nothing at all like that happened. No chimps tried committing suicide at Dr.Helson’s place for chimps, surprisingly enough.

There are similarities between Half Brother and Project Nim. Both chimps traveled to more than one place and stayed there for a little bit. They both lived in a cage with other chimps with them. They both went through a tough time going to different places to live. At the end of the movie and the book they both did not stay with the family that treated them like a human.

There is something new I learned from the book and movie. If you are introducing chimps to other chimps, start with the small ones. That a chimp can get so strong and powerful to kill a person in seconds. Humans can communicate with chimps without really talking and chimps can talk back. If you could  talk to a chimp speaking what would you ask

jamborina2

My class, the Gr.7/8 of Turnberry and Snow Lake school, are reading the book Half brother over by Kenneth Oppel. In the book, Ben and his family move from Toronto to Victoria. His mom brings a chimp to teach it sign language as a science project. Now they have cameras in Zan’s room where the “teaching desk and chair are but Zan( the chimp) does not like the chair so Dr.Tomlin (Ben’s dad) is strapping Zan to the chair so he can learn. We Skype each other almost every day and read to each other the book and ask everyone questions we don’t understand In the book Half Brother.

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Todd Huffman
The question I chose to answer about the book is Ben is conflicted, disturbed by William Eckler’s lecture on the horror’s of animal testing, but realizing it would be “hypocritical to worry about animals’ feelings or how we treated them” (p. 166) since he isn’t vegetarian.  Do you feel guilty about eating animals or wearing leather goods? Why or why not? I don’t feel bad about eating animals and wearing leather goods.
Some animals over populate so that’s why you should kill some deer or something once in a while.
If hunter’s did not go out and hunt deer for food the deer could over populate and take over the forest so the other animals can not make homes there.                                                                                                                         When the hunter gets the deer skinned and wash the meat it will fill the whole family and saved the family the money for supper.
When a hunter shoots a deer and gets the fur and the meat from it, it will fill the whole family and keep them warm will and will not have to go to a store and buy food.
I think that it is good that people hunt animals so they don’t over populate.

If you were one of those animals in a cage what would you do? Why?

In the book Half Brother that the Gr.7/8 and Snow Lake’s class are reading over Skype to each other’s class. Ben is moving to a new house with his parents and when they get their his mom brought a monkey and they are teaching it sign language so they can talk to one other. My connection to this book is when Ben learns to stay away from Tim. When I watched the movie Alvin And The Chipmunks they learn to not follow Alvin. Like when Ben followed Tim in to the scrapyard Tim is one of Bens new friends that get in to trouble. Ben learned not to follow Tim everywhere.

cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo shared by troycochrane