Day at the beach

Quick Write

By Kya Solomon

Her soft brown fur buffeted in the wind…

She tilted her head and her sky blue eyes glistened in the bright

sun.

My dog stood radiantly making vague patterns in the sand.

Waves crashed, booming loudly against the sharp rocks.

Grains of sand made her fur shine in the lit up atmosphere.

I tapped down the wooden stairs making my footsteps as quiet

as an owl. Her petite paws dug into the sand like the smallest

russian doll. She hauled herself out of the water as heavy as a

200 pound weight. She bolted along the sand faster than her fur.

I wondered if I would ever catch her! The aroma of fresh

salt and saplings filled the air. Plants scraped roughly

against my skin as I raced my dog towards the stream.

Another beautiful day at the beach!

Vultures and plastic

In a reading program that we do called chapter chat, we have to complete activities. For one of mine I wrote a report about vultures. I then posted it on my blog. My whanau has been commenting loads on my blog and my mum commented on this post. She asked me if I could find out if vultures consume plastic and that is one of the reasons some species are very endangered. I found a website (http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1676/14-107.1) that had some very important information. I took some information from that website:

Plastic material in the Diet of the Turkey Vulture in the Atacama Desert, Chile

 "Turkey Vultures are one of the most distributed feeders throughout the the Americas."  People that have investigated the Turkey Vultures diet have found that natural foods such as dogs, sea lions, and feathers showed in 17% of there diet. They also found that 78% of pellets from coastal sights and 83% of the pellets from inland sites contained plastic material. They supposed that plastic was probably ingested because vultures scavenge in plastic bags disposed as garbage along beaches and roads. The availability of food from garbage bags could partly explain the widespread distribution of these vultures in the desert. Turkey Vultures patrol roads in search of animals hit by vehicles, which results in finding carrion and garbage. Garbage in plastic bags has increased as more roads have been built in these areas. In the future, it will be important to study the effects of ingested plastics on these birds. I do not think that plastic is one of the reason that he Turkey Vulture is becoming extinct. One reason I found is they are poisoned by a toxic veterinary drug that is fed to livestock, then the vultures eat animals that have been drugged.   

Valiant Vultures!

In Moana 2 we do a reading program called Chapter Chat. We have to answer some questions and complete activities. Here is my report about Vultures:

Vultures

Are Vultures endangered?

There are 23 vulture species and 16 are considered vulnerable to extinction.

Where is a vultures habitat?

The Turkey Vulture likes to live in Subtropical Forests, Shrublands, Deserts, and
Foothills. It is also found in Pastures Grasslands and Wetlands.

What is the lifespan of a vulture?

Different species of vultures have different lengths of lifespans. The king vulture
can live up to 30 years! With the Black vultures lifespan up to 10.

What Do Vultures Eat?

Turkey Vultures feed almost entirely on carrion and human garbage. Although on
rare occasions Turkey Vultures catch live prey, including young or sick birds and
mammals, Black Vultures kill live prey more often, sometimes Turkey Vultures
eating live prey often involve them mistakenly eating Black Vultures.

Pump up your sentence!

The Level 3 writers in Moana have been learning to PUMP UP OUR SENTENCES! We had to use different sentences structures to make our writing more interesting. Here are my examples:

Pump up your sentence!

WALT: use different sentence structures for effect.

Short sentences: (3-4 words only)

I adore football.

Perle adores football.

We adore football.

Compound sentences: ( a comma is used, then a conjunction)

I adore football, so I play football.

Perle adores football, so she plays football.

We adore football, so we play football.

Subject first:

Football is the best sport in the whole entire world.

Football can involve lots of strategy.

Football needs lots of energy and strength.

Adjectives first: (describe the subject)

Beautiful sunsets rise, while playing football.

Dirty mud on our skin as we play football.

Amazing sound when we score a goal playing football.

Adverbs first: (how is the doing happening? Comma after adverb)

Quickly, we chase players when playing football.

Slowly, we skill the players while playing football

Menacingly, we slide and tackle to get the ball off the other team as we play football.

Speedy, Spectacular, Quick Writes

In Moana pretty much every day we have to do a Quick Write, which is when our teacher gives us a sentence starter (which is highlighted in yellow below) and we have to write a short story beginning with that sentence starter. Here is my story:



Water swirled around my feet as I stood, my feet sinking into the golden sand. The tides continue to wash in and out. I stand there and gaze out at the horizon. Out there waves are crashing loudly, but where i'm standing the ocean is as calm as the bright blue sky up above.

I trudge up the glistening sand and place my towel up on a nice dry spot. The sun starts to rise and the sky turns pink. The calm ocean numbs my toes as I bravely dive into the deep blue liquid. I feel my hair sweep behind me, and the water rush down my neck, through my arms, down my stomach and my legs, then tickle the tips of my toes. An icy blast of air whips my neck as I slowly arise out of the water. I race to shore, grab my towel and quickly run home. I wash the sand that covers my small feet off under the hose. Then I jump into the warm bath that speedily warms my limbs. What a great lifestyle!

Tantalizing timetables!

In Moana 2 we have been working very hard
on our timetables so that we get to know all of
them. This is my DLO about timetables.

Dashing Diplomas

In Moana 2 we have been working on our timetables. We have been using this website:
www.timestables.co.nz. We have also been trying to get our diplomas. Today I achieved my little diploma: