Michael's information report about Oil Spills

Oil Spills

Oil spills are a deadly mess that can kill many marine life. Oil spills are caused normally by ships crashing or breaking down.

Oil spills through a hole in the ship and floats on top of the water. This plots the water beneath. The oil can be many colors but when it comes out it is black.

Oil spills are caused in many ways. Some are caused by human mistakes or people being careless. Other ways are equipment breaking down, natural disasters such as hurricanes and storms. They can also be caused by terrorists, countries at war or illegal dumpers.

Oil Spills kill animals in many different ways. Birds get covered in oil and try to clean their feathers and die because the oil is poisonous. The oil can blind birds, which leads to them getting eaten by predators. Birds try to get food and then eats its prey with oil on it, causing the birds to be poisoned. Fish can get poisoned by the pollution that the oil spill causes.

Oil Spill affect the ocean by polluting the water, poisoning the animals that live in the water, and staining the coastline and killing the animals that live on the shore.

  

Oil Spills are awful messes I wish we could find a new way to make oil that is not poisonous.

Axolotls by Alex

Axolotls are an endangered species, found in Mexico. Mexicans eat axolotls as a big treat. Axolotls were once at the top of the food chain in their habitat. Then bigger species were introduced into their habitat. Axolotls are exclusively found in the lakes of Xochimilco.  Axolotl means Mexican Walking Fish  

Diet

Axolotls are carnivores. Axolotls eat worms, insects, small fish and anything it can fit in its mouth. Axolotls have special teeth for good grip and axolotls eat their food whole. If the food is too big for the Axolotl to eat, it will give up. Some fish that axolotls eat have diseases and if the axolotl eats it the axolotl will get the disease. Axolotls will eat dead or alive food. Axolotls will even eat small dead Axolotl body pieces!         

Physical Features

Axolotl are born with a dorsal fin and gills, which they keep for their whole life. The dorsal fin runs almost the length of its body.  It is unusual for amphibian to keep their dorsal fins and their feathery gills. When Axolotls are born they look a bit like tadpoles. Axolotls mate between 5 months and several years.

Appearance

There are lots of colours for Axolotls. They can be pinky white, dark blue with spots of black, purply blue, dark green with spots of light green and lots more. Axolotls have gills on their head. Sometimes Axolotls appear to smile.

Axolotls are amazing creatures and one of the most unusual amphibians in the world.

By Alex-David 

Dolphins

Dolphins are sea mammals. Almost all live in shallow tropical areas. Five types live in rivers. Some species of dolphins are endangered. There are up to 40 dolphins species are alive today.

Diet

Dolphins eat a variety of prey. Dolphins eat fish, squid and other types of sea animals. How much a dolphin eats depends on the size of its prey. Dolphins use different strategies to catch prey. They use methods like herding fish. Some strike fish with their tails (it is called whacking).

Behavior

Dolphins are very playful. Many species will leap out of the water to look at their surroundings. Dolphins sometimes follow ships in packs.

Habitat

Most Dolphins live in shallow tropical waters. Five types live in rivers. River dolphins are called platanistidae and ocean dolphins are called delphinidae. Dolphins live in every ocean, although mostly in warm waters.

Features

Dolphins have little hairs around their jaw when they are a calf (newborn). As they get older, they fall off. Dolphins are part of the cetacean family. Most dolphins have long, light bodies that are made for fast swimming and high jumps out of the water.

Facts:

There are around 35 to 40 types of dolphins that are known, though several species are known to be endangered.

Dolphins live in groups from five to several hundred.

Dolphins swim up to a hundred miles a day.

Dolphins sleep with one eye open.

Dolphins have been known to dive down to depths of 1,700 feet.

Dolphins can swim between 20 to 25 miles per hour.

By Georgia

  

 

Jasmine's Bottlenose Research

Bottlenose Dolphins

Dolphins are well known by their intelligence and their kindness. Their mouths are curved to show their appearance of friendliness, and they can also be trained complex tricks to perform.

Bottlenose Dolphins can swim 18 miles per hour. To breath they swim to the surface for 2-3 every minute. Schools of Dolphins would come to aid an injured Dolphin by bringing it to the closest shore.

Bottlenose Dolphins track their prey through the use of echolocation to find out where the prey is and how big it is. They can make nearly 1,000 clicking noises every second. The sounds they make to find food travels underwater until it meets their prey, then it bounces back to the Dolphin who sent the sound and the Dolphin finds out their prey's location, size and the shape of their prey. When they are feeding, they often eat bottom dwelling fish. They also eat shrimps and squids.

These Dolphins can be found in tropical oceans and other warm waters surrounding the earth. They are scattered around the world in oceans. They avoid the Arctic oceans in the north and also the Antarctic ocean down south, where the water starts to get cold.

Dolphins travel in groups and communicate by squeaks and whistles. They are sometimes spotted following fishing boats in hopes of the fisherman's dinner leftovers. 

Once Dolphins were widely hunted for meat and oil. Today limited Dolphin fishing takes place. They are being threatened because of commercial fishing for other sea animals. They can also become tangled in fishing nets and other fishing equipment, which leads to their death.

Fast Facts about Bottlenose Dolphins:

They are: Mammals

They are: Carnivores

Their size is: 10-14 ft

Their weight is: about 1,000 lbs

Did you know?

Dolphins sleep with one of their eye open and the other closed.

To stop drowning, dolphins keep ½ of their brain awake and the other ½ sleeping so they can continue breathing.

By:Jasmine

Down by the bay by Lara

Down by the bay

Down by the bay,

Where the watermelons grow,

Back to my home,

I dare not go.

For if I do,

My mother will say,

Did you ever see a lion sobbing and crying?

Down by the bay.

Rose's Information Report

Hector's Dolphins

Did you know that Hector's dolphin is one of the smallest dolphins in the world? They live around the West Coast and Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand.

The Hector's dolphin is so small that one could fit in a bathtub! They grow between 1.2 to 1.4 metres. The female weighs up to 45 kilograms and the male weighs about 10 kilograms less.

Catching food takes most of the dolphin's day up. They mainly eat red cod, flounder, hake and stargazer.

The Hector's dolphin is a small gray, white and black dolphin. They are mostly gray with a white belly and black face, tail and fins.

 

Did you know the population has fallen from 30,000 to 7,000? Their population has declined because of  rubbish in the sea. The dolphins see the rubbish and think it is food, or they get tangled in the rubbish and cannot swim or feed properly. Without being killed by rubbish, the Hector's dolphin can live up to 20 years.

Hector's Dolphins are the rarest dolphins in the world. They can only be found in New Zealand and their numbers are getting very low. I think Hector's dolphins are very special and should be saved. What do you think?   

Best Things

Best Things

Room 5 has been creating a "Best Things" poem. We wrote all our favorite thing and made it into a poem!

By Joe

Jasmine's Camp Poem

Camp Poem

Another fun day was rising,

As other people were realizing,

That today was the day for the beach!

We all hopped into the bus,

Without any fuss,

Though the top of

the bus was out of reach.

Morning tea is very close

And all my food is very gross.

The black sand is steaming hot.

Learning how to recognize a rip

makes me want to bite my lip.

Thinking about this

Makes me want

to trot.

Lunch is super near

I smell the fear

For me to eat!

Ran down the glittery sand

slipping off my hand,

Beating my feet on the ground

with the best beat!

By Jasmine

Information Report

Information Report

what is  an information report?

An information report is a practical text, which means that the information it provides is about something. As

an information report, to better understand the theme of a living or non-living Report

●to explain things with facts.

●Give details of a topic,

●does not contain personal opinion,

●usually written, but can also move the spoken

features of an information report.

●An opening statement

●A bunch of facts about a subject

●a report requires a non-fictional story,

●most of the reports are written in the present tense.

what is the purpose of an information report

●Inform readers about the topic

example of an information report

The Elephant  Africa – Asia

The elephant is quite a strange animal which has two dreadful tusks and a trunk The cow elephant has one baby

every four years–which heights one meter and weighs 100kgs–which makes of him a big baby elephant!

one hour after his birth the baby elephant can already walk!His mother guides the elephants first steps because

his legs  are still shaky.

Even though they never look after their "kids", the male elephants pay attention to the young they meet. They gather

armfuls of grass or break a few branches.

The baby elephants remain close to their mother.

At about 11 years old, the male baby elephants leave the herd where they grew up. They then join other males.

by Jacob Nicholas and Fisher

Information Report about Swordfish

Information Report about Swordfish

The swordfish are cold blooded marine animals. They are a large and strong animals. Their scientific name is Xiphias Gladius. The swordfish is one of the world's fastest sea animals as they can swim up to 50 miles per hour. They are rare animals too.

The swordfish sometimes lives in the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea (Under Europe). The north-west Atlantic Ocean is also their habitat. The Pacific swordfish are three times larger than north- west Atlantic swordfish.

The swordfish have a long flat sharp bill above their mouth to catch their prey and protect from predators (enemies) including humans, large sharks and killer whales. They have a couple of big eyes and no teeth. The swordfish have a crescent shaped tail and a tall front fin. They have a special organ near their eyes which keeps their eyes and brains warm which makes them think and see better. Their average length is 2.1 metres, but some of the swordfish reach 4.6 metres! Most swordfish weigh 68 - 113 kgs. They can weigh more than 450 kg and the world's heaviest swordfish ever caught weighed 536 kgs! The female swordfish are bigger than the males. 

Swordfish are carnivores (that means meat-eaters). They eat ocean fish like mackerel, hake, herring and bluefish. They sometimes eat octopus and squids. They mostly eat at night. They catch food with their bills. 

Some swordfish die of pollution that made them think it's their food but it is actually rubbish. If they don't die from pollution, their average lifetime is three or four years and the maximum is 9 years.

The swordfish are very interesting and fun animals. You might want to see one at an aquarium!

By Yuan

Killer Whales Information report Example by Maggie

We are learning to write information reports. This is not a report that we wrote, but one that we think is a really good example. We have colour coded the different parts of the report to help us to remember to include them when we write our own reports.

Keys

Title

Description

Details

Conclusion

Killer Whale information report

Description

Killer whales are toothed whales. Whales have teeth that fit tightly together and are very strong. The killer whale is black and white in color, it has a sleek, streamlined fusiform (tapered at both ends) body shape. The average size of a male is 9m and the average size of a female is 5 meters.

This is a Killer Whale.

Habitat

Killer whales inhabit all oceans of the world but are most numerous in the Arctic, the Antarctic, and areas of cold waters .They can be found near the shores of Washington, Oregon, California, and Baja California and along the eastern coast of the United States. Killer whales also have been seen in warm water areas such as Hawaii, Australia, the Galapagos Islands, the Bahamas, and the Gulf of Mexico.

Movement

When the killer whale swims it moves its powerful tail up and down, and beats the water with its flukes. It flippers help the whale to steer and to keep its balance in the water. A whale’s streamlined body and smooth skin allow it to slip easily through the water.

Feeding Habits

The killer whale is the top predators in the ocean; they are the largest predator of warm blooded animals ever known. The killer whale eats fish, squid, seals, sea lions, walruses, birds, sea turtles, penguins, polar bears, reptiles, swordfish and even a moose! All of these animals were found in a killer whale's’ stomach.

Breeding

The female killer whale turns sexually mature when they reach 4.6-4.9m, at about 6-10 years old. The male killer whale turns sexually mature when they reach about 5.1-6.1m, at about 10-13 years old. In the Pacific Northwest calving is mostly occurring in the spring and fall. In other areas of the world, researchers have seen calves born throughout the year with no statistical evidence for birth seasons.

Other Facts

No one knows for sure how long killer whales live. Killer whales are top predators in the sea.  Healthy adults have no natural predators, but sharks prey on older, younger, or ill killer whales.

Killer whales are smart and interesting to see.

Alice's Summer Poem

Summer Poem

Summer smells like the strong salty sea water travelling up my nose when I walk across the beach. I can smell fish and chips as families picnic on the beach at sunset.  

        

Summer sounds like waves crashing onto the wet slippery rocks. I can hear seagulls squawking as they circle over my head, looking for their next meal.

Summer tastes like delicious chocolate ice-cream melting in my mouth. I can taste the salty sea water swirling in my mouth after I get dunked by a wave.

Summer looks like the sun beaming on the deep blue shimmering sea. I can see people sunbathing in the burning hot sun. People are splashing in the shallow blue sea. I love watching seagulls flying high in the bright blue sky.

Summer feels like the soft, silky, hot sand on the bottom of my feet. I can feel the sharp shells pinching my feet. I can feel the freezing cold sea splashing on my body.

By Alice

Swimming Sports!

Last Tuesday it was the school swimming sports at St Kentigern's College. We used poetic language to share our experiences. We looked at how powerful verbs are and how we could carefully select verbs to portray our emotions. Here are our poems. We hope you like them!

Did you ever have swimming races at St Kents?

Heart beating

Body shivering

Lots of splashing

It’s lots of fun - try it!

By Isabelle, Jacob and Nick

Did you ever race in the St Kent's pool?
Lungs gasping
Nerves shaking
Hearts pumping
Try it!
By Karen, Thomas and Alice

Did you ever swim a race at Saint Kents?

Legs pumping

Crowds cheering

Arms aching

Give it a go!

By Georgia, Fisher and Claire

Did you ever go swimming in the deep waters of Saint Kents?

Body shaking

Heart pounding

Legs trembling

TRY IT!!!

By Jasmine, Cora, Jaimie and Michael

Do you think that the verbs we used created an impact? We would love to hear what you liked about our poems and what we need to work on next.