The first graders wrote poems and illustrated pictures about winter. They were too wonderful not to share!

Jay

Emma

Ben

Japhet

Gavin

Bobby

Aurelia

James

Yahsiel

Grace J.

Myles

Lina

Gracie

Ezekiel

Alysia

As part of their first grade unit, the students studied black bears, polar bears, panda bears and grizzly bears learning about their features, habitats, and eating habits. Each student created a KidPix page about a particular bear fact which was then made into a class movie. Excellent job, Grade 1!

GIANT ARMADILLOS
Priodontes maximus
by Emilio
2/7/12
Imagine you are taking a walk in the desert. You are bushwhacking through a
particularly dense patch of grass, when you hear a rustling next to you. You look down,
but there is nothing there except for a lump of dirt. Suddenly, the lump gets up,
revealing four stubby legs. A head pokes out and stares at you with small knowing
eyes. Then it wobbles down the path. You have just encountered a Giant armadillo.

Discription

Giant armadillos have a strange appearance. Their average size is five feet long and three feet tall. They have long snouts and small, beady eyes. They are covered from head to tail with bony plates. They have small, round ears covered with hair.. Even though their appearance is weird, they are amazing creatures.
Life Cycle:
Giant armadillos live 16-17 years in captivity, but only 9-10 years in the wild. When born, there skin is soft, but as they get older, their skin hardens into a shell. Three years after birth, the Armadillo is ready to mate. After mating the male will stay with the female for the rest of his life. After a gestation period of two months, the female will give birth to one baby Armadillo, then the cycle repeats.
Habitat:
Giant armadillos live in grasslands in Brazil. They are territorial, living and hunting in an area ranging from 1-36 square miles. An armadillo may have as many as twelve dens within its territory. Each den is made up of 4-10 moss-padded sleeping chambers, connected by tunnels. Their main food sources are bugs and small snakes.

Threats:
Giant armadillos are endangered for two reasons: habitat loss and poaching. As humans make more cities and towns, we tear away grasslands (the giant armadillo’s natural habitat). Collectors value armadillo shells, encouraging poachers to illegally capture and kill these animals.

Solutions:

The situation is not hopeless. Wildlife reserves provide sanctuary for these animals. Donating money to these reserves could save this animal, So remember…

SAVE THE GIANT ARMADILLO!

Works Cited
“Armadillos.” National Geographic Book of Mammals. 1981. Print.
“Armadillos.” Wildlife and Plants. 3rd ed. 2007. Print.
“Giant Armadillo Priodontes Maximus.” kidsplanet. Defenders of Wildlife, n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. .
Schaefer, Lola. Armadillos. Chicago : Reed Elsevier Inc. , 2004. Print.

The videos have been posted and now the writings of the students have been added. Click below to read the students reports, letters and myths.

Ms. Paglia Baker’s Class

Mr. Stewart’s Class

The Giant Panda By Brody Wood

Imagine you are in the bamboo forest. It’s cold. All you can see is bamboo trees. Suddenly you see a cute female panda caring for her cub. This panda is so adorable and awesome. Unfortunately, this species has only 1000 left of its kind.

The panda is so adorable with it’s shaggy fur, short tail,and plump, round body. The black and white markings make panda so cute. The male panda weighs 187 to 275 lbs. and the females weigh 157 to 224 lbs. The panda is 5 to 6 feet long. The panda has strong teeth and a sensitive nose and ears. The panda can run, swim,and leap better than any gold medalist in the world.

The young panda stay with their mother for 18 months to 2 years. during those 18 months are up the mom looks after and protects her cubs. When the cubs are six, they leave to mate. Pandas live up to 25 years in the wild and 30 years in captivity.

When pandas mate, they usually mate in the spring. Before the babies are born, the mother finds a cave or a hollow tree and lines it with bark or bamboo. The mother panda usually has one or two, but rarely three babies, but if there is more than 1, she will only care for one and let the others die. After having her babies, she waits two years before she mates again.

Pandas live in the bamboo forests. Bamboo is the only food that they eat to survive. If you ever want to go see the bamboo forests, they are in southern China in the mountains that are 3,300 to 13,000 feet above sea level. In the bamboo forests the panda can keep to themselves and be safe predators.

Because the panda lives in tiny isolated parts of China, it makes it harder for them to mate. There are only about 1,000 left in the world. There are very few left because people cut down bamboo to make paper and houses and it never grows back because they cut the roots. Poachers hunt pandas because their skin is worth a lot of money and they believe that the skin is magical.
People are helping the panda. The government has created reserves so pandas can live in peace. If found with a panda skin, a person will be sent to jail or life put to death. Scientists are trying to make bamboo grow faster. There are more ways to help the panda like the WWF organization which helps all animals especially the panda. Please help by donating money to this organization.

Works Cited
Claybourne, Anna. Animals Under Threat: Giant Panda. Chicago: Heinemann-Raintree, 2004. Print.
Help The Giant Panda !!!!!!

LoggerHead Turtle
By Elias
The Loggerhead Turtle’s scientific name is caretta caretta, and it’s very big. It weights 300 pounds. The turtle’s back is 4 feet across. It’s reddish brown. It has flipper-like limbs, a scaly skull, a horny bill, and an oval shell.

Baby loggerhead turtles live in very dangerous places. They can get eaten by squid when they are in the ocean. They hide in the seaweed, and eat tiny plants and animals. Adult loggerhead turtles travel places where there is lots of food. When around 30 years old, the loggerhead turtle is fully grown. Then they return to beaches where they were born to lay their eggs.

Loggerhead turtles lay eggs in the spring and summer. Loggerhead turtles usually lay their eggs along beaches in between North Carolina and Texas. Loggerhead turtles lay about 100 eggs in a big hole in the sand. Loggerhead turtles can nest several times in a nesting season. The mothers rest about 12 days between the nesting. Loggerhead turtles buries eggs in holes and then they leave to go back too the ocean.

Loggerhead turtles eat mollusks, horseshoe crabs, and sea urchins. The young turtles eat tiny plants and animals. Adults live near shore waters in bays and estuaries. Young turtles live in the ocean water near sargassum (sea grass), to hide from their predators. On average, only one in one hundred baby loggerhead turtles survive to adulthood.

Loggerhead turtles live in subtropical and temperate ocean waters, and live in oceans all over the world except in the coldest seas. They nest along the Atlantic coast of Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina and off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. To count how many Loggerhead Turtles there are,scientists count the number of eggs a female laid in a nest. They have come up with a an estimate of between 39,000 and 60,000 for the years 1989 to 2003. The number of loggerhead turtles is staying about the same today.

There are many threats to the loggerhead turtles. Humans are their main threat. Humans have been hunting for Loggerhead turtles’ eggs and their leather. Pollution and marines debris are anther threats to all turtles. Loggerhead turtles also get tagged in nets, and boats kill loggerhead turtles when they get hit by propellers.

People should not hunt any endangered species. Also people should not build house on the beach. I think we should have a new law. That should be no hunting loggerhead turtles, and eggs and for their leather. I think there should be two laws: no buying and selling their eggs or their leather. Also a little less catching fish that they eat will help them.

Works Cited
Scott, Jack Denton. Loggerhead Turtle: Survivor from the Sea . New York: Putnam, 1974. Print.

The California Condor
by Drey

Imagine you are taking a hike in Southern California. All of a sudden you see a huge bird that has black feathers. Ten feet in front of you, you see a dead goat, and two more of these strange birds pop up out the goat carcass. When you try to get close, they puff up and screech. But there’s nothing to be afraid of. They’re just California Condors protecting their food.
The California condor’s scientific name is Gymnogyps Californiusians.
The California condor has a bald, red-colored head and black feathers. It has a white stripe running from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other wing on the underside. A full grown condor weighs in at a maximum of 35 pounds but is usually around the 23 and a half pound mark. It has a wingspan of up to 12 feet! The condor also has a lifespan of about 60 years and is the largest flying land bird, which means it spends most of its time on the ground but also flies. They also only lay one egg a season.
The California condor lives in Southern Alaska but mostly in southern California where there are rock cliffs. In 1990 there were only ten Condors left in the world, but in 2002 there were close to 500, so they are coming back, which is good. The California condor is related to the Andean Condor which is not endangered.
The California condor needs very particular places to live. The California condor has to have a windy place to fly because they depend on the wind to keep them in flight. They also need clear ground for hunting small mammals and for scavenging. Condors also need rock caves where they can lay their eggs and sleep. The rock caves need to be somewhere the mother can watch the eggs via a perch.
Condors will eat dead cattle, deer, horses, goats, rats, mice, and practically anything that is dead or is dying. Condors also hunt for live mice Condors need clear grasslands to hunt small rodents and scavenge for food.
California Condors are valued today for their meat, feathers, and eggs. They are also wanted for their skeletons because they are favored to hang on walls since they have such a huge wingspan.
Some threats to the Condor is it takes the Condor 56 days to breed and incubate the egg. The biggest threat is illegal trapping and killing from a shotgun For trophies.
one of the things that the Condor needs for survival is to stop hunting illegally and trapping and poaching. We humans could be more conscious of forests and grassland, rocky cliffs, and just the whole environment. And therefor we should be helping these amazing birds back to full population and more. And that’s why California condor should be saved from extinction.

Works Cited
Arnold, Caroline. On the Brink of Extinction. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Corp, 1993. Print.
“Gymnogyps californianus — Overview california condor.” EOL. EOL, n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. .
World comservation. Endangered Birds. Milwaukee: Gareth Steve Publishing, 1995. Print.

Gray Wolf
by Jayde

Introduction
Imagine you are walking in the cold woods of Alaska. You come across a furry gray animal that looks like a dog. It has big, cold, gray eyes. Then one more pops up through a bush. Then one more pops up, then another, then another. Then a chorus of howls rings out into the cold air. You have come across pack of gray wolves. Don’t be alarmed because they are afraid of you. They are one of the most beautiful, powerful, but endangered animals.

Description
You have probably seen a dog that looks like the gray wolf because they are closely related to dogs. A gray wolf has a long muzzle and long legs. Its color can vary from snow white to jet black. They have big pointy ears and a special kind of coat that will not get matted over time. An adult female can grow up to be four and a half to five feet long. An adult male can be up to five feet to six and a half feet long. The gray wolf can live fouteen to fifteen years in captivity but only twelve to therteen in the wild. Its gestation period is sixty-three days, which is about two months. they normaly give birth to four to seven pups. This shy animal is amazing and beautiful.

Habitat
The gray wolf has a beautiful habitat. The gray wolf can live in any climate and adapts well. They eat deer, moose, cattle and sometimes small rodents. Did you know that gray wolves hunt animals twice their size? The only thing they need for survival is water and food because they are also scavengers, which means they will look for dead animals to eat before they go out hunting. Now that wolves are endangered some people that care about there existance try to protect their habitat. The gray wolf is not protected everywhere. For example, in Alaska there are not laws to protect the wolf or its habitat. Now you can imagine where the gray wolf lives and eats.

Range and Population
Did you know gray wolves have a population of 150,000 and only live on two continents? They live in Canada, most of Asia and in small parts of the United States, mostly Alaska and the nothern border of teh lower 48 states. Only 150,000 wolves live in the world. People breed them in captivity so their population will rise. The Ethiopian Wolf is the most endangered wolf because it only lives in one place. You may think the gray wolf’s population is healthy, but it is not doing so well because it is spread out across two continents in small packs. The gray wolf lives in the United States too, so we should help save their habitat.

Threats
The gray wolf’s threats are sad but true. The gray wolf’s main threats are hunters and loss of habitat. Before there were laws to protect wolves from hunters, lots of wolves were killed because farmers complained that the wolves were eating their livestock so the wolf’s population became very low. Loss of habitat is due to people pushing development into their habitat so they have nowhere to go because every place in the world is becoming populated with people. Hunters shoot them sometimes, even though it is illegal. They are shot for hunting trophies, because they are big predators, and also because they eat livestock.

Solutions
These are some of the solutions to protect the wolf and ways you can help. The gray wolf’s habitat has been changing. Now that national in the United States parks are creating reserves for wildlife such as the gray wolf. More people understand how important wolves are to the food chain. They do not think of them as enemies. They think of them as allies. Now that laws have been made in the lower 48 states that no one can shoot a wolf, their population is bigger than it was before. Their habitat is changing for the better because people like you care about them. Please help save them!

Bibliography

Brandenburg, Jim, and Judy Brandenburg. Face to Face with Wolves. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2008. Print.
Reiter, Chris. The Gray Wolf. Berkeley Heights: Enslow Publishers Inc., 2003. Print.
Wolfe, Art, and Chris Weston. Wolves. Herefordshire : Evans Mitchell Books, 2006. Print.

February 8, 2012

Dear Editor,
Did you know that the gray wolf is one of many endangered species? Imagine in fifty years children not knowing that the gray wolf inhabited the United States!
The gray wolf is an amazing and beautiful animal. It can run up to forty miles an hour! They also have families and communities just like humans do. The gray wolf has big, pointy ears and fur that hardly ever mats. If we help protect the gray wolf, I am certain it could be around for generations to come.
More and more forests are being logged each day, which reduces the gray wolf’s habitat for development. The gray wolf can only live on two continents (Asia and North America) because we have already driven them from their habitats. Also sometimes hunters shoot them on accident thinking they are coyotes. These are all serious threats.
The gray wolf is very important to the food chain. Without the gray wolf, lots of animal populations would overun because they would have no natural predator. They would not have enough food, so they would starve to death. The gray wolf only kills the weak or diseased animals, so the strong ones can reproduce.
Please help save the gray wolf because they need a place to live too.
You can adopt a wolf online and also you can donate money to lots wildlife funds, such as the World Wildlife Fund. Take part in wildlife funds to protect them everywhere.
The gray wolf cannot survive without help from us. I know you will agree with me that the gray wolf is a magnificent creature that needs help. Please support raising awareness of the gray wolf because they are counting on you.

Yours truly,

Jayde

A concerned student
from Leverett Elementary School

The Koala
by Gaelen Murray

Imagine you are walking in a jungle in Queensland Australia. There are gum trees towering above you. You see something that looks like a gray teddy bear move up high in the gum trees. What’s that? It’s a mother koala and her baby moving to a more comfortable position in the fork of a gum tree.
NAMES:
The koala’s Latin name is phacotarctos cinereus, which means “furry pouched gray bear.” Although a koala looks like a bear, it is not. It is a marsupial. It’s related to kangaroos and opossums, which are also marsupials. A marsupial is an animal that has a pouch on its stomach.It has a ring shaped muscle that keeps the baby from falling out.
DESCRIPTION:
Koalas are fat fluffy and cute! What could be better?! Baby koalas are the size of a lima bean! The koala has small brown eyes, a big black nose, big, furry, white, and gray ears, and fluffy, soft, gray, and white fur. Did you know that Koalas can live up to 18 years in captivity, but usually only 15 years in the wild?! Koalas normally mate when they are about three years old. Male and female koalas normally do not associate unless they are mating. Male koalas can weigh up to 17.5 pounds and females only weigh up to 12 pounds. Koalas eat eucalyptus leaves, which are also known as gum trees. Koalas eat a lot and are very adorable.

HABITAT:
Koalas live in hot, humid temperatures in forests in a fork of a gum tree. Not only do koalas eat gum tree leaves, but they also live in the trees! Sometimes koalas have to travel up to 30 miles to breed because there aren’t enough koalas around them.

RANGE AND POPULATION:
The koala’s range is from Victoria, Australia through New South Wales, Australia and into Queensland, Australia. There are only around 40,000 koalas left in the wild.
VALUED FOR:
One of the ways koalas became endangered is that they were shot for their soft, pretty fur. What is really sad about that is that people just did it for the money! Koala fur can sell for a lot of money.

THREATS :
Humans are cutting down gum trees, (for houses) which is the koala’s main source of food. Australia is very dry so wild fires can happen often. Wild fires can kill koalas because koalas are slow moving and can not escape. Wedge tailed eagles, falcons, snakes, and humans also kill koalas for their fur and meat.

SOLUTIONS:
Some solutions are adopting a koala. This means you give money to an organization thats helping koalas. Another solution is to have captive breeding programs. doing these things for koalas is one step toward saving them from extinction!

Works Cited
Arnold, Caroline. Koala. New York: Richard Hewett, 1987. Print.
Inskipp, Carol. Koala. Chicago: Heinemann Library, 2005. Print.

“Phascolarctos cinereus: Koala.” EOL. EOL, n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. .

February 8, 2012
Dear Editor,
Did you know that the koala is endangered and it is our fault? As we cut down the gum trees the koalas live in, it is driving them out of their habitat! This is forcing koalas to inbreed because they can’t find any koalas around them. Since they have to inbreed, when the babies are born they get sick and die.
The koala is very cute and attracts lots of tourists to zoos, so if the koala became extinct, zoos would lose lots of money. Personally, I would not like it if in 50 or 60 years people forgot about the koala because it went extinct.
The koala is also important to the food chain. Wedge-tailed eagles and many other animals might become extinct if the koala did, because the koala is their main source of food.
I know you will agree with me that since we made the koala endangered, it is our job to save it. You are the koala’s only hope! In spite of these problems, there are things we can do to save the koala. We could start captive breeding programs and decrease the amount of gum trees we cut down. The koala is a wonderful creature and if we don’t help save it, in a couple of years it may be gone from this planet. Thank you for considering this serious issue.
Yours truly,
Gaelen
a concerned Koala loving student
Leverett Elementary School

Jaguars
by: Ian


Imagine you’re walking on the Mexican Plains and you see movement in the grass. All of a sudden you go white because you hear a grunting noise, and then you find out it is a jaguar. You feel like just going over there and feeling its thick, soft, fur, coat but you know better.

The jaguar does not have lot of names, but it has a few. The jaguar’s common name is the jaguar. The scientific name for the jaguar is Panthera Onca.
People get confused that a jaguar is a leopard, but the leopard has bigger spots.The Jaguar is closely re leopards, pumas, tigers, loins, and mountain lions. The color of the jaguar is yellowish orange with black spots. Jaguar adults can weigh from 124 to 211 pounds. Larger jaguars can be 333 pounds.

The jaguar needs stealth, food, water, and a mother for survival. The jaguar will live in dry areas or forests with a lot of vegetation. The jaguar’s food is armadillos, Brocket deer, rabbits, peccaries (a kind of pig), wild guinea pigs, tapirs, porcupines, otters, sloths, capybaras, monkeys, skunks, coatis, snakes, iguanas, herons, caimans, storks, anhingas, and cormorants. It will eat most animals it can find! A jaguar will sometimes stalk an animal for about thirty to forty-five minutes. It uses stealth to find its food.
The jaguar lives in South America and Mexico. Leopards might be closer to extinction because the leopard has bigger spots, and may be more fashionable. It is hard to find out exactly how big the population of jaguar is because they are nocturnal, they blend in well, and they live in the jungle.
Jaguars are valued for many things, but mostly because of their fur. Some people will sometimes try to have the jaguar as a pet, but the people will often get killed by their own jaguar! Mostly the jaguar will get killed for its fur. But sometimes the jaguar will be forced to move out of its habitat because people are making too many cities and creating landscaping for buildings.
The threats to the jaguar are serious but humans are the main problem for jaguars. The first thing is that people have been hunting them, even though it is illegal. it is been illegal ever since the big cat hunt of the 1960s. Sometimes people kill them just for fun, which is sad. Lastly, people keep on building cities near the jaguar’s habitat running them out of their homes.
Those are some pretty bad threats, but there are some ways that we can stop those things from happening. The first way we can stop the jaguar from extinction is try to stop people from hunting the jaguar. The main reason they are endangered is that people have been wiping out their habitat to create cities. We should not stop making cities but when we do, we must create a protected area for the jaguar.

Works Cited
Malaspina, Ann. Jaguars. San Diego: Lucent Books, 2001. Print.