Books read

These holidays I am reading a few Little Animal Ark books. These are two more that I have finished.

Dolphins at Daybreak

I really enjoyed reading this book.

The Life Cycle of an Owl

I read this book. This is what I learned.


The Life Cycle of an Owl
by Jill Bailey

The male barn owl lives on its own in an old barn or an old house. It has its own territory to hunt and warns other owls to keep away when they hunt. If other owls get too close he chases them away.

In spring the male looks for a female to mate. He calls out to the female. The female calls back to him in a different way. The male gives the female a dead rat for a present. He sits beside her and fluffs up his feathers. The female cuddles close to him.

The females lays the eggs in a barn or church tower. She lays one egg every two or three days until she has up to eleven. She incubates them and while she incubates them the male brings her food.

The baby eats off the yellow yoke inside the egg.

When the eggs hatch the male and female get the babies food. The oldest and biggest baby gets fed first. They have no feathers when they hatch. The first feathers are called down and they keep the baby warm.

When they are old enough they start practicing flapping their wings. Then they take the first flight away from the house. The mom and dad still feed them.

When they are fully grown the parents chase them away from the home to find their own house. It is very dangerous at this stage because the owl has many predators like foxes and cats. There are other dangers like poison from them eating rats that have been poisoned.

Reading from Party Pony

The Party Pony

This is a book I read about a pony called Sparky. It was a party pony. I really loved this book.

The Kiwi Bird

This baby kiwi is so cute. When I was looking for a picture to draw mom said "what about this one" and I say "oh yes". It is one of my favorite pictures.

This is the cartoon I drew. It is so funny, he said in the beginning "I am your guide throughout the book". Mom thought I should draw it to show how long the adult's beak is.

Operation Nest Egg

Operation Nest Egg:
Saving New Zealand’s Kiwi

They have Operation Nest Egg to save New Zealand’s Kiwi because there are many predators that are killing kiwi babies. Their numbers are going less, so they are trying to make the number of kiwi grow again. They do this by taking the eggs out of the burrows and taking them to a place where they put them in a incubator. 100 eggs can go in one incubator.



When one egg starts to hatch they take it out so that it doesn’t disturb the other eggs. It takes a few days for it to hatch. When it hatches it has a yoke sack that they feed off until they can find food for themselves. The yoke sack is in their tummy and the people know if it is going away or not by checking their tummy. If it is still out and big it is still there, if it is in then it is not there. If it is still big they have to give an operation and take it out. When they are feeding on their own they go to a special place where there are no dangers. They stay there until they are big enough to go back into the wild where there are many dangers. Some of the dangers are possums, cats and dogs.

Now I am going to tell you about the things that kiwi have that are different to other birds. Kiwi have thick skin where other birds have skin that is thin as paper. Most of you will know that Kiwi can not fly where most other birds can. Other birds that can’t fly are bigger than the kiwi like ostriches and emus. Kiwi have whiskers where other birds don’t. They have nostrils on their beak and they use them for smelling their prey where other birds use their eyes for getting their prey. Kiwi eat worms, snails, cockroaches and spiders. In captivity they give them fruit, porridge, vegetables, bugs and stones (to crush up their food). Their feathers look like hair instead of feathers. They make burrows instead of nests. When kiwi hatch out of their eggs they have their eyes open and they have feathers. In a few hours the baby can stand. In a few days the baby can start getting its own food.

The kiwi have very very strong legs that they use to kick with and defend themselves from other animals. Their legs are heavy but because they can’t fly they need them to run very fast. They run as fast as humans. Their bones have got marrow inside just like humans and other mammals where birds have air inside their bones. With two kinds of kiwi, the dad sits on the eggs. But with the other three kinds of kiwi, the mom and the dad sits on the egg. The one kiwi is called the “great spotted kiwi” and the other is called the “little spotted kiwi”.

Giraffe Picture

The Giraffe

The giraffe has 7 neck bones just like humans and other mammals. Even a mouse has seven neck bones. The giraffe’s bones are much longer than ours, that is why they can have only 7 bones.

The males are called bulls and the females are called cows. The baby giraffes are called calves. The other thing that is similar is that they also chew the cut that means they have to chew their food four times.

Giraffes have to widen their front legs very far to drink. When they are drinking they are most likely to be attacked by lions. Lions, leopards, hyenas and hunting dogs attack the babies but only the lions attack the adults.

The mom goes to a separate place to give birth. When the baby is born, the mom immediately starts to lick it and clean it. Not only is it to clean the baby but she also does it that she may know what the smell of her baby is. In a few minutes the baby can stand and drink. They stay alone for a little bit until the baby can run.

Most animals like antelope walk around with giraffe because the giraffe wag their tails when danger is near. And that warns them. An ox-pecker eats the flies and bugs off the giraffe but they are also a problem because they peck at sores on the giraffe, or scrapes, and that makes it worse.

They have horns on their heads. They will have at least two, but sometimes 3 or 4. The horns are covered with hair. No two giraffe have the same pattern. There are two kinds of patterns on giraffes. Their head is very, very heavy and their heart is very very heavy as well. Their blood has to go very very very high up to reach the giraffes head. The giraffe has special veins or something that stop the blood from draining down back to its heart.

The giraffe has very good eye site and hearing and a good sense of smell. The giraffe can close its nostrils to keep the flies away and keep the dust out of its nose in a dust storm. The giraffe has teeth that have gaps between them to pull leaves off a branch. Their tongue is very very long so they can wrap it around the leaves and pull them off. It is very useful when they are eating from the acacia tress so that they can get their tongue in between the thorns.

Giraffe in a Jam

Animal Ark. In South Africa. Giraffe in a Jam
by Lucy Daniels

Mandy and her parents and her friend James were visiting a game reserve in South Africa. One day they were on a game drive and they saw a whole lot of animals and some giraffe. Lavina said that Mandy and James could go with her the next day to the part where no one was actually allowed. On their way they stopped at a waterhole and they saw a whole lot of giraffe. All the giraffe except one left the waterhole. When that last giraffe tried to get up from drinking, it couldn’t. They stayed and watched to see if it would get out but it couldn’t. When they were just about to leave, they saw a little baby giraffe coming out the bushes and going to its mother. So they stayed some more and Lavina said “I would like to take them back to the boma so I can study their reactions to each other.” So the man who was with them called another man to come and take the giraffes back to the boma.

While they were waiting for the man they had a walk around. Then they came back and soon after that the men came with some trucks and they managed to get the mother out of the mud by digging around her feet. And then they took them back to the boma and got them off the truck and got some acacia branches for them to eat and they rubbed some arnica on the mother.

The baby at first didn’t come up to them but after a while the baby came right up and Mandy got to touch it. The day came that they had to release the giraffes to the wild because the baby was getting too used to humans and because the mother was better.

So they got the mother in the truck but they couldn’t get the baby in. So Mandy begged that she could try and get the baby into the truck. So she went in and persuaded the giraffe to go into the truck. He followed her to the truck and stopped for a little while and then he trotted up to his mother. And then they took them back to the wild and Mandy and James went with and watched them go with the other giraffe back into the wild.

Cuckoo Chick

A cuckoo bird lays its egg in another birds nest and then the new parents have to work hard getting food for the baby because cuckoo chicks are big and need lots of food.

Babies

Baby dogs are called puppies or pups and so are seals. Kittens are baby cats as well as baby rabbits. Baby cows are called calves and so are baby giraffes and elephants. Baby koalas and baby kangaroos are called joeys.

Ladybirds eat aphids and so do their babies. Their babies are called grubs.

A lot of animals have to be able to run soon after they are born. Goslings are baby geese and they have to swim and run straight away after they hatch. Giraffe calves have to run soon after they are born. If they don’t keep up with the heard they will be easy for lions to catch.

Baby rabbits have no fur and they don’t have their eyes open when they are born. But baby hares have fur and they are born with their eyes open even though they are similar to rabbits. The reason is because hares are born on the ground and rabbits are born underground.

Mammals

Mom showed me how to draw a rabbit and so I did a new one. I used real fur. I made the tail white because we see the white tails of the rabbits in the garden as they hop off.

I have decided that this looks more like a hamster.

Grade Two Books

Science.
This first crossword puzzle I did not like. Once I had finished it I was so glad I had finished it. At the next crossword puzzle I liked that one more. I don't know why. I guess it was because it was smaller. (Belinda "The second puzzle had just as many as the first. I think she enjoyed the second one because I told her how much Nana and Grandpa love doing crossword puzzles. I am sure that helped. It was probably easier the second time around too.")

Language

Maths

Sports Day

On Tuesday we went to a sports day. And we played a whole lot of games. We had to line up in our teams. We got stickers for which team we were in. There were children from different schools and from home schools.

The first thing we did we had to run over polls on the ground and then run around a cone....

and on the way back we had to jump over jumps. It was so much fun. This was one of my favorite parts.

I hated this one. We had to take blocks and run back and forth and get as many blocks as we could into our hoola hoop. Once the blocks in the middle had finished, we had to steal from the others. That was why I was so shy and did not like it.

Here we had to get balls and run back and forth putting the balls out in the three hoola hoops. We had to take one at a time. And then we had to go to the back of the line and the next person had to bring them back, one at a time.

First we had to bounce the ball to the person on the other side. Then we had to roll the ball across to each other over a hoola hoop...

and then we had to throw the ball through the hoola hoop to the person on the other side.

Sports Day - part 2

We ran and we jumped over a jump and we had to zigzag between cones and go under a bench and we had to crab jump back to the back of the line.

We had to throw a heavy ball and then we had to wait for instructions and then we went to go fetch the ball. We had to put our left arm straight in front of us where we were aiming and have the ball under our right ear and then we had to "push" the ball when she said "three".

We had to throw a beanbag and get it into the bucket. If we got it into the bucket it was 2 points and if we got it into the hoola hoop then we got 1 point. I got one in the bucket.

We had to run and jump into the sand. That was called a "long jump".

We had to throw the ball around the circle and count how many good catches we had. When the other team said "stop" we had to stop.

We put balls on a parachute and we had to put the parachute up and down, up and down to try and get the balls off.

Then we counted up to three and then went under the parachute. Then we did it again. It was like a big tent.

It was so much fun.

Felines

Yardil by Rosanne Hawke

Once upon a time there lived a girl. She wanted a snow leopard. But her dad didn't want one. One day when she had finished helping her sister make flour she went into the mountains. She went on and on. Then she heard a crying sound. She picked up her courage to go further. Then she saw a baby snow leopard caught in a bush. She said "let me help". She rushed forward to help the snow leopard. She went home to show her mother. The other people said "how will we protect the goats?" But her dad said "let her be, because I know a story of a leopard and there was a reason for it coming."

One day she was cleaning the rice at the river. Then she slipped and fell into the water. The snow leopard ran up and down. Her dad saw the snow leopard. He was just in time to save her.

That night, she head another same kind of cry. She said, "that is your mother." She let the snow leopard got to his mother.

The picture is of the snow leopard when she was in the water. He was worried about her.

Bears

I used sand on my brown bear and cotton wool on my Polar bear.

Pandas for Kids. by Kathy Feeney

Panda bears eat bamboo. They are endangered. They live in China in the mountains. May's Uncle tries to protect the Pandas. The Panda bears have to go higher into the mountains because the people are making villages so the Pandas have less space to live.

There are two different kinds of Panda bears. The one is black and white and is called the giant panda. The other one is red with a long bushy tail.

The picture is of a Giant Panda.

Who's for the Zoo? by Jean Ure

The children didn't agree with Catherine. So the teacher said instead of working on Math's cards, they were going to play a game.

The teacher said that all the children that didn't agree with Catherine had to go to the one side. The children who agreed with Catherine went to the other side. The children who didn't agree had to stay in cages built out of tables and the children that agreed had to be the visitors.

The children who were the animals did not like it at all. They didn't like all the laughing. But the visitors loved it. And at the end of the day, the children who were animals learnt that Catherine was right. They learnt that the animals at the Zoo were very sad because they were behind bars and in small cages.

The picture is the picture that Catherine had drawn of a sad gorilla in a cage.

Zoo Animals

This is my Zoo Animal journal.

Zoo Animal Fact File

I use this to find information for my worksheets.

Grade One Books

Science

Language

Maths