October 8, 2021

Dear Diary,

Today is one of the most important days of my life. I am finally old enough to get out of my mother's pouch. Today is also my birthday. I invited all my friends from Junior School ( that is the school for koalas who are below six months old). So I tell my friends to meet me over by the eucalyptus tree patch. It is our favorite place to meet each other. When the party started, we did not do much. We mostly just ate. There were over a thousand eucalyptus plants in the area. 

It wasn't until 5 PM that my friend June gave us something to do. She suggested that we make some crafts out of the eucalyptus plants. Then for the rest of the party, we all just slept. We slept for 18 hours. It was an amazing day!

Love,

Allison

Dear Diary,

Today was my first day of school. I was so lucky! Our school was only a block away from our house. My mom was so thoughtful and gave me a special present. She said it was an heirloom. When I got to school, I saw my courses for the day. I had biology class from 8 AM to 9:30 AM and defense class from 9:50 AM to 12:00 PM.  My teachers were really nice. In biology class, we learned that a koala has a trophic level as a herbivorous animal. We will eat many kinds of eucalyptus leaves. and a few other related tree species, including lophostemon, melaleuca, and corymbia species. We typically eat 200 to 500 grams of leaves each day! Our teeth have adapted to help us eat. Wow! That was so fun. Defense class taught us to be mindful of our surroundings. The teacher gave us a surprise test. I passed! I was so happy.

From,

Allison

Date: October 11, 2021

                                                               Date: November 3, 2021

Dear Diary,

Today, our school introduced the concept of drills to us. It turns out we would do them every day. Today’s drill was all about defense from predators. The principal explained that if a predator like a dingo, owl, or lizard was surrounding the school we would lash out our claws. No predators came today, but if they did, the school would inform us and we would defend ourselves. I personally hope that nothing ever attacks the school. 

From,

Allison

Date: November 7, 2021

Dear Diary,

Today was by far the scariest day of my entire life! It was around 5 AM. I was so tired I would have never woken up until I heard the sound. I suddenly woke up to find that a machine driven by a human was approaching me. I saw my surroundings and I noticed that ¼ of the eucalyptus trees were gone. My mom had warned me about this. She told me that sometimes humans would clear the plants in the area to make space for them. 

Sometimes, koalas would even be hit by the machines or hurt by dogs. I was so scared and panicked. Was I about to lose my home? The next thing that happened was the greatest relief of my life. The machine turned around and went in the other direction. I jumped up and down.

Love,

Allison

Date: November 21, 2021

Dear Diary,

Today is the last day of the semester! We had a fun party at school. It was really cool. We got to meet other marsupials. We had kangaroos, wombats, and opossums. Today, I learned something very interesting. The eucalyptus plant that we eat is poisonous to other animals. I offered Kangaroo a piece and he explained to me that it is toxic to him.  I invited Kangaroo and some of my koala friends over after school today. We all had a blast. After 6 PM we all headed back home. 

Love,

Allison

                        Date: December 7, 2021

    Dear Diary,

The first day of a new semester is always exciting. But this time, it was more fun than you can imagine. We got to go on a field trip! This is my first field trip, so I asked some of the older students where we are going. They said we were going to a koala history exhibit for two days. The principal was leading our field trip. It took about thirty minutes of climbing to get there. We found out that a famous koala in the marsupial community would be teaching us koala history and evolution. For the first day, we learned about Australia's geography. We learned that koalas live in Eastern Australia. Koalas live in open forests and woodlands. It was really fun.

From,

Allison

Date: December 8, 2021

Dear Diary,

I am still at Koala History and Evolution Camp. I checked today’s schedule and found out that we are now learning about tectonic plates and koala evolution. The class commenced at 9 AM. We found out that Australia was never always where it is today. We learned it was originally close to Antarctica. It gradually moved away to where it is now. We also learned that during this time, koalas had started to evolve. We were back at school soon. I thought that school would have ended, but we had ten more minutes. The vice-principal made an announcement that one koala would randomly be selected and choose where the next field trip would be.