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.