Fossils

Fossils
Fossils are formed when an animal dies and falls to the ground. That’s when other animals in the world stomp all over the bones. The bones are covered in dirt, creature waste, mud and rock. The rock forms around the bone and sucks out the water from the bone. So when people find fossils they’re actually rock because the rock takes the shape of the bone.

Dinosaur Hunters
The first almost or fully complete dinosaur was the famous Ichthyosaurus. Discovered by Mary Anning and a dog that probably reminded her of her father. Then the dog disappeared because its job was done. Most people don’t think that 12 year old girl found the rare Ichthyosaurus but she did find the creature in 1812. Some people say it was her brother Joseph, not the dog, who helped her find it on the cliff of Lyme Regis.

At first Joan Wiffen found only sea creatures. In 1975 Joan Wiffen found her first land dinosaur fossil in the Mangahouanga Stream near Napier. She used it to prove there were actually dinosaurs living in New Zealand a long time ago. After several years Dr Ralph Molnar confirmed in 1980 what Joan had hoped. That she finally found a tail bone of a land dinosaur. She found a tail bone of a theropod. After a while she had more successes of finding air and land creatures. She found the following: sauropod, pterosaur and a bit of the foot from another or maybe the same theropod.

by Stella

If you want to know more about Mary Anning you could read Stone Girl Bone Girl by Laurence Anholt

If you’re in a New Zealand school you could read Level 3 School Journal, September 2012

Moths

Facts:
1# Many Females of the Tussock family have no wings
2# The Hawk Moth is the fastest insect ever
3# Some Moth antennae are like birds feathers
4# Cecropia the moth is america biggest
5# Some moth caterpillar have such as ‘Io’ are covered in stinging hairs
6# Moths heat up their flight muscles by vibrating their wings
7# Moths are attracted to light
8# Male moths have bigger antennae than female moths
9# Hummingbird moths wings beat 70 time per second
10# Moths eat nectar
11# There are 160,000 species of moths in the world

Habitat
Moths live in the bark of trees and on the bottom of leaves and plants.  Rachel has drawn a Moth in its habitat for readers to look at.

by Hannah

illustrations by Rachel

World War I

My big question is…how the war started and why ? I want to know this because it has been ANZAC day and I think people should know why the soldiers went to war.

How Did World War 1 Start?

It started from July the 26th 1914 and ended November the 11th 1918 it went on for 4 years. It was called World War or the Great War.

1914- August 1st Germany declared war on Russia.

1915-August 5th the German captured Warsaw from the Russians .

1916-July 1st start of the battle of the Somme .
May 31st battle of Jutland.
December 7th Lloyd George becomes British Prime Minister.

1917- July 31st start of the third battle at Ypres .

1918- the war ended

New Zealand troops joined Australia to become ANZACs (Australia & New Zealand Army Corps). Nurses were also in the world war ,to help soldiers that were wounded . When soldiers and nurses left they had a farewell parade. Sometimes they left in a hurry or early.
The lowest age to go to war was 21. Some soldiers wrote a note book and sent it to the loved ones. Maybe if they were dying or they were writing everything at once so if they do die people could read about what had happened.  People have photos of all the soldiers and some people carry their soldier dairies around. One of the old soldier’s name was Dudley Muff (died on the 2 of january 1995 before his 95 brithday).

If you were wounded you would get taken back to the ship and  get treated before you got taken to land hospital .

If you died on the ship they would wrap you up into weights and throw you overboard and if you didn’t sink they would fish you out and put more weights on you .

Enemies put soldiers in jail and keep them there.  2200 New Zealanders became prisoners of war. That was the largest number captured in one battle in New Zealand military history.  Prisoners were feed dog biscuits broken up into little pieces and they only got a little bit of water each day from a small well .

Some people put up white flags to say that they come in peace to grab something from the battlefield .

Some people stayed alive in the war and returned but some never come home and their body remains where they died.  Crosses are in the ground to show people where soldiers have died. David Gallaher soldier and all blacks captain was killed in action in World War 1.

There are some remains of the world war like dug outs and trenches .

by Dion

The Science of Space

Space is a really interesting place, but dangerous because it carries no oxygen. It’s just like diving but when you’re in space you’re up in the air. If you’re going through to a different galaxy.It will take 100 light years.

Red Dwarf stars are smaller than our sun. Because of their small size, these stars burn very slowly, which allows them to live a very long time.  Some red dwarf stars will live trillions of years before they run out of fuel. Red dwarf stars only burn a little bit of fuel at a time. They are not very hot compared to other stars.  The temperature of a star determines what colour they are.  We can know how hot a star is just by its colour.

No way is our sun the biggest star. We may have heard that the sun is the biggest but it isn’t. W Cephei is the biggest star that scientists know about. It is 288,194 times bigger than Earth.

by Izac

Did We Evolve From Monkeys?

Evolution is when things slowly change into different creatures. Were monkeys ever in the timeline of human evolution? I did some research and this is what I found out. But I saw not everyone agreed with the same thing!

Some people do think we came from monkeys because we look like them and they have some of the same abilities that we have. Like standing on their legs,holding things in their hands, climbing trees, peeling bananas, run walk move and making noises.

But some people don’t think we came from monkeys because we don’t have tails and because we still have monkeys and we don’t see them evolving into people nowadays.

Another thing that I found out is that someone said the earth has only been around for 7,000 years or so and it takes 1,000s of millions years for things to evolve.

I’m not disagreeing from any of them but what I learnt is that if you get a picture of you and then put a picture of your dad on top and keep on adding ancestors on to the pile until it’s so tall that you need to climb the Eiffel Tower to get to it, you might see it’s a monkey. If not well you need to wait another 1,000 million years to see if a monkey turns into a human.

Daynah M.

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher is a diving bird.

A Kingfisher has blue feathers and a black beak and a white body.

Some kingfishers live in New Zealand.

The Kingfisher dives in the water to get a fish. They lay eggs and the kingfisher babies grow big. Then they fly away.

I like them because of their colourful wings.

Illustrated by LatJos and PedMax.  Written by LatJos

Kea

A Kea

Keas are the heaviest parrot in the world.

Keas are green and have orange underneath their wings.

Keas live in the mountains and mostly live in the South Island.

Keas hunt for animals.

Keas scratch their head feathers.

Illustrated and written by GorCar

Cockatoo

Cockatoo

A Cockatoo has white and yellow feathers and are 29cm long. A Cockatoo has a sharp beak, sharp claws, white and yellow feathers which help it hide. Its wing span is about 30cm, it has a little yellow tuft of feathers at the back of its head.

Cockatoos live in the middle of the forest near Hamilton and near the middle of the forest in Australia. In summer they live near rivers where fish live.

They use their feet to grab fish out of the water and catch any other little animals. A Cockatoo likes to eat berries off trees and hunts for fish in the rivers. They like to see other cockatoos around the forest. They go crazy when they see one another.

A Cockatoo has a bite that hurts so much that it will make you cry because their beaks are used to fight other birds. They only bite when they’re mad at someone.

Illustrated and written by CarMik

Kea

Kea

The kea is a native bird a bird of prey. Kea are related to kakapo and kaka.

It is a dark green colour. Under its wings it has orange so when it is flying you can see the orange.  The size of a kea is 460 mm long.

Kea can be found in the mountains and kea can also be found in the forest.  They are also at Hamilton Zoo.

Keas eat berries, seeds, tender roots, insects and worms.  It swoops down and grabs its prey.  They also like rubber. When people go to snow keas take the rubber from people’s cars. Keas don’t breed until they are three years old. They lay 2 to 4 eggs . Breeding time is in January to July.

There was a baby kea at Hamilton Zoo but sadly the kea died.

Illustrated and written by PeeDay

My Book of Pets

Cats and Kittens

Some cats have a long tail that helps a cat to balance. Kittens love to play together. Pointed ears help cats to hear. Cats sniff the air to smell food and other cats. But when dogs are around cats can scratch.

by S.C.T.

Lions

Lions are mammals they belong to the cat family.

They have eyes, teeth, fur, tail, ears, mane, whiskers, claws, legs and paws.

They live in the wild in open grass lands in Africa.

Lions hunt other animals like cattle.

Did you know a lioness keeps her cubs hiding for four to eight weeks. She sometimes moves her cubs from hiding place to another gently carrying each cub in her mouth.

Females do all the work and males just sleep.

I wonder do people shoot them?

By BriTas

The Deadly Adder

The deadly Adder is a reptile and a snake.

The Adder can be black, white, or the colour of sand. It has rough skin and 2 fangs.

The Adder is found in the African jungle and African desert.

The Adder kills and hunts its prey with poison.

Did you know…

· The Adder is a poisonous snake?

• · Its colour blends with sand.

• · Milking an Adder is dangerous.

by OadSha

Tigers

Tigers are mammals. They are big cats.

They mostly are orange white and black. Adult tigers have 30 teeth. Its black fur is its shortest fur and longest is fur on its stomach.

Wild tigers are mostly found in India and Siberia.

They eat zebras, spotted deer and just about anything.

I wonder if a Tiger can jump?

By MatSha

Bats

A bat is a flying mammal.

It has two wings, two eyes, a nose, sharp fangs, two feet, two ears, black fur and a mouth.

They fly, eat, hunt and hang upside down.

They live in caves and dark places in Australia & New Zealand.

Baby bats can not fly until they are several weeks old. They like the dark. Did you now that if a mother bat drops its baby she will not get it because she can not walk.

by CooRyd

Polar Bears

Polar Bears are mammals.

They are big, white and fluffy. They have big eyes to see danger and sharp claws.

Polar bears live in the arctic lands around the North Pole.

They walk in groups and try to catch some fish to eat.

Did you know that polar bears have more trouble staying cold than getting hot. Polar bears have two lots of fur.

Polar bears are coming on to land because the ice and snow is melting. You can find polar bears in Canada.

I wonder if they get really sick and die in the cold water?

by MurRen