Jess and Sarita’s
Indoor Animal Adventure

"I can't believe it's raining—again!" cried Jess.

"I know. I was so excited about going on our animal adventure together.”

Sarita plunked down her backpack on the dirt floor of the McConnells' hut. Lately, Sarita had been so busy helping her mom with housework and looking after her little brothers that the two friends had found almost no time to explore the rainforest. Now, just when Sarita’s dad was free to guide them, the skies had opened.

“I was looking forward to checking off more of the animals on my list,” said Jess. “I’ve got to find that toucan.”

The toucan was at the top of Jess’s list. She could hear him calling every morning, sitting high in the treetops—but he stayed hidden behind an emerald screen of leaves. Jess couldn't wait to see his beautiful colors.

“And I was sure we were going to see the white crocodile that my dad found!” added Sarita.

The two friends sighed. Rain tap-danced on the thatched roof above them.

"Well, what shall we do instead?" asked Jess. “Any ideas?”

“Nope. You?”

“No. Not yet, anyway.”

Just then, Mr. McConnell hurried into the hut, shaking the water from his hat and hands.

"Hi, girls. Why the long faces?"

"It's raining," explained Jess.

Jess’s dad smiled. "Well, it is the rainforest,” he said.

"I know,” Jess replied, “but Sarita and I had big plans for today! Now they're all washed up."

Mr. McConnell filled three Styrofoam cups with fruit juice from a cooler in the corner of the room. He set two of them on the table in front of the girls.

"What about doing a craft? You have that set of paints and markers your art teacher gave you as a going-away gift," he suggested.

"Well…I guess.” Jess’s face broke into a smile. “That’s not a bad idea, Dad!" She turned and rummaged through her stash of supplies by the bed.

"Glad I could help,” he laughed, finishing his juice. “Well, I have to run back to the work tent. I just hope we don’t get washed away out there!"

"See you later!" Jess called as he darted out the door into the downpour.

She put her bag of art materials on the bunk and looked at Sarita.

“Now, what kind of craft should we do?"

Sarita’s eyes shone with excitement as she looked through the brightly colored markers and paints. "Seems like you could make anything with these,” she said.

Jess tipped her cup up to drain the last bit of juice then held it over her mouth. “Like whaaatt, Saritaaaa?” she groaned dramatically into the cup.

Sarita giggled. "Hey, when you hold the cup up to your face like that, it looks like an animal snout."

As soon as Sarita said that, smiles dawned across the faces of both girls. Jess knew they were thinking the same thing.

"Let’s turn our cups into animal masks!” they shouted.

“That’s such a cool idea! We can try to make the nose or beak of every animal on our list,” whooped Jess.

"It'll be our own indoor animal adventure!" exclaimed Sarita.

Want to make some colorful animal snouts and beaks of your own? Click the link to the left to learn how!