We selected books about animals that interested us and discovered many new and surprising facts. We also searched for information about the animal we chose on the Internet, learned how to take notes, and consider more than one source for our information. Our research was organized into paragraphs and written from the animal's point of view. We made sure to use plenty of adjectives to make our writing clear and interesting, using a thesaurus to help us pick some. We learned many new things and used technology skills we've practiced all year. Pennsylvania State Standards continued to be met with this project, integrating Science (4.6.3 & 3.7.3), and Language Arts (1.5.3 & 1.8.3). |
This page was last updated on: June 5, 2004
Animal Research May 2004 |
Audrey May 2004 Cougar! Hello! As you know I'm a leaping, fierce, feline known as the cougar! Some people think I'm a female lion but they're wrong. I have a small head and a long neck with thick brown or gray fur. I'm much smaller than a lion. Yum! Yum! Yum! I just finished my dinner. I love deer, elk, and moose but those are just my favorite! I also eat squirrel or other small animals. Right now I'm in Canada. You might have seen some of my family members. Most of them live in the United States. Some live around Texas, New Mexico, or the mountains of California, Oregon, or Washington. Others even live in New York! My uncle lives in Central America and others of my family members too! Roar! If you think that is me roaring it isn't. It's just my friend the lion. Meow! Yes, I do purr instead of roar, unlike others of my feline family. Most of them roar but I like to purr. Meow! I can jump extremely well and I am an excellent climber. I hate the water. Most of the time I'm nocturnal, and during the day I hide. I have the biggest list of common names. Some people call me the panther, the mountain lion, the puma, catamount, the painter, and of course the cougar. I am endangered, but now there is a law that people made to protect me! I like to live in primitive countries. I'm usually quiet, calm, and exclusive and never attack people, unless they're close to my baby cougars. I just want to protect them. I'm one of the largest cats of the Feline Family. I'm an excellent climber, jumper, and swimmer. (Of course I don't like the water.) But, I have excellent hearing and eyesight. All women cougars are called ables. Men are called songs. My family and I may live all around the world but, I am not very often seen. I'm so famous that people write books about me like a book called Cougars written by Lynn M. Stone. Guess what? I'm on the cover! There's more! I'm on the Internet also. My three favorite websites from Yahooligans is a website called Cougars, Cougars in the Big Sur, and Sierra Safari Zoo-Cougars. The book says that people have feared and hated me. I don't think that is true. But, at least Lynn M. Stone said one thing that was nice. She said that some people LOVE cougars. The Internet is a whole different story. The Internet has tons and tons of sites and pages to read and choose from. That's why I like the Internet better. It has more photos, information, and details. The book by Lynn M. Stone says that I'm endangered. But, a lot of people try to help and I think that's enough. |
Alex May 2004 The Cool Wonders Of A Meerkat Hey, I'm a meerkat. I'm orange with black stripes on my back. I also have black patches around my eyes. Meerkats like me mostly eat beetles, worms, snails, and millipedes. Yummy! We also eat small rodents such as birds, lizards, and even snakes when we come across one. MMM good! We're usually found in southern Africa. We're also mostly found in the hot dry deserts. Hey, did you know I am related to a mongoose? We meerkats also live in a band, which is a bunch of us living in a really big group! Did you know my ears are designed to close when I am digging? When the adult meerkats go look out for danger the little meerkats have to have a baby-sitter. Our band can have up to 40 individuals! Did you know that we have at least 10 different calls to communicate with each other? I can make holes up to 10 feet! Did you know I have tan to gray in my coat? We meerkats mate in warm months of the year. Did you know we're carnivores? We only have a life span of 10 years. We're only the size of a rabbit. Did you know the female meerkats give birth to 4 to 5 babies? Did you know in the Dallas Zoo the first meerkat up makes a bark? We have to maintain a constant body temperature. We need a lot of sleep. In the winter we enter our burrows in late afternoon. We use lots and lots of energy staying alert to danger. Did you know my scientific name is the suricata? When I want to eat a scorpion I bite its stinger off. I am also called the mongoose of the African grasslands. In the Forth Worth Zoo I would eat cat chow and crickets. Ewww! I'm a colonial animal. I'm about 2 pounds and 12 inches tall. All the meerkats in a band perform specific roles. The book Animal Families by Tom Jackson has information that is different from the Internet's Searchasauras "Meerkats", and Searchasauras "Meerkats at the Dallas Zoo" because the book has more information about how I am related to the mongoose and the Internet has information mostly about what I look like or what I eat. The book is the same as the Internet because it says I'm a meerkat and because they both give lots and lots of information about my habitats and lots more. I like the Internet better than the book because there were lots of different articles about me! Well, we meerkats are really fascinating aren't we? Bye, I have to go. It's my turn to baby-sit the little ones. |
Emily May 2004 Me, The Zebra Hello! I'm a zebra. I can live in a lot of places in Africa. I mostly live in the deserts, plains, and I sometimes live in the mountains. If you want to see my friends and me in the wild, you would have to visit one of those places above. Almost all the other zebras and I have, of course, black and white stripes. I love to eat grass. If there's no grass I have to eat leaves and other herbs. Did anyone know that my friends and I could have yellow and/or red stripes too? Everyone also thinks that the horse and the zebra are the same, but did you know that my mane stands straight up! Talk about having a bad hair day! And my ears look like cups! (Not to mention as big as cups too!) Believe me or not, my ancestors used to once live in Europe! My friend the Gravy's zebra is up to 5 feet tall! Pretty tall for a zebra. If you want to know more about me, keep on reading! People took some of my friends, because us zebras can be raised and tamed by people. I know all this because all zebras have long heads. That's why we're so smart. All zebras eat as often as a five-year-old horse. We eat with the ostriches. We eat with the ostriches for 35 years because that's how long us zebras usually live. Zebras eat a lot because I weigh 520 pounds! I may have a lot, but I have a narrow, horse-like body and I can run up to 35 miles per hour. I can communicate with my friends by making very weird noises. Did I tell you that I only mate during the spring? Zebras written by Mr. Bill Ivy in the "Nature's Children" books tells a lot about me. Another information source is the Internet. Now I'll compare the book Mr. Ivy wrote and two Searchasaurus articles and one Yahooligans article. First, the book. Mr. Ivy wrote that I, oh yeah my family and friends AND I are excellent runners especially in water. Searchasaurus said that I, I MEAN all zebras, have long tails to swat flies. Yahooligans said that ALL zebras have narrow bodies. My favorite source is the Internet because you can get over a hundred articles! (A lot more than a book.) I'm on my first article. I still have 99 more to go! So you should read about my friends. See what they say about Zebras. |
Anthony May 2004 The Amazing Rattlesnake I am a rattlesnake. I can be found in North and South America, where it is hot. I have a scaly body, a long forked tongue, and two long, sharp fangs. I eat rats, lizards, squirrels, jackrabbits, birds, and skunks. I can smell with my long, forked tongue, and I can sense heat with organs called "pits". Since I don't have teeth, to eat something bigger than my mouth, I disconnect, or dislocate, my jawbones. My rattle is made of the stuff your nails are made of. When the pieces of keratin (the stuff your nails are made of), called buttons, clash together, they make noise. There are different kinds of me. The Western Diamondback is one of them. The Western Diamondback can live for 20 years. They mate in spring and fall. They have young in July or August and can have 2 to 24 young. The Timber Rattlesnake mates in spring and fall. They can have 6 to 10 young. They can have a length of 3 to 5 feet. As for me, the Aruba Island Rattlesnake, I can have 5 to 15 young. My length can be 30 inches or less. I live in tropical deserts. I like to read books and visit websites about myself. I read Rattlesnakes by Tom Jackson. I visited Searchasuras and Yahooligans. The web site and book were the same because it was easy for me to search for the right information. They were different because the website searched for me and I needed to search in the book. I liked the book better because it was easier and faster to search. I had a lot of fun making this report. See you in the Tropical Desert! |
Elizabeth May 2004 Coyote I am a coyote. I look like a wolf. I eat rabbits, voles, moles, ground squirrels, chipmunks and woodchucks. I can be found at North America. I can bark like a dog and squeal like one too! I am built for speed. I have fantastic powerful muscled legs and a slim body. I have yellow slightly slanted eyes. I go around with my mouth wide open sometimes. In fact, I can stretch my mouth wider than a dog or wolf. I have 42 teeth made for perfect grasping. I belong to the same family as foxes, Timber Wolves and dogs too! I have a smaller nose pad, but bigger and pointier ears than a wolf. I look skinnier in summer than winter. That's because I have lost my big heavy winter coat by late spring. I kill ranch and farm animals. I live alone or in pairs. I also eat many things. I breed during February or March and give birth in April or May. I am extremely shy. My ears are wide, pointed, and erect and my hearing is good also. The Internet is different than the book because the Internet says that I kill farm animals and it does not say that in the book. They also said I am extremely shy! The Internet and book are the same because they both talk about me the coyote. The source that was better was the Internet on Yahooligans because it tells a lot of interesting stuff about me. I love being a coyote. |
Mike May 2004 Pronghorns Hi I'm a Pronghorn and I'm very bulky. I also have a gray coat or sometimes it's tan or a reddish brown color. My cheeks, belly, and rump are white. Also I have smart-looking black markings trimming my face and throat. Now I'll tell you what I eat. My favorite summer foods are clover, buttercups, wild onions, and alfalfa. In spring I find fresh grass shoots and they're really tasty. I live in the plains of North America and in central Mexico. People say I'm a deer or even worse, an antelope. I'm not a deer or an antelope! I have no other relatives in the world except other pronghorns. The other pronghorns I and make up our own kind of family. When I was at the age of 2 I knew how to run! Isn't that shocking! I get my name from my backward horns. Also I wander in herds with my other friends. I weigh between 103 and 154 lbs. In my family twins are common. My other pronghorn friends can run faster than a cheetah. Cheetahs can't keep up with us pronghorns. I think the Searchasaurus Pronghorns and the Nature's Running Machine told better about me than the Nature's Children Pronghorns written by Elma Schemenauer because Searchasaurus tells why I got my name. It also tells we can run faster than a cheetah and that a cheetah can't keep up with us for 7 miles. What a chicken! In Nature's Children Pronghorns book they told that we eat buttercups and clover even though they taste really good. I think the websites told more about me. I hope you would pick me as your field guide when you come to the prairie. See you in the fields. |
Ryan May 2004 I Am a Gila Monster Hi! I am a Gila monster and I am not harmless. You can find me in some deserts. I can be very colorful sometimes. I can be mostly black and have pink spots. I am 2 feet long or 60 centimeters long. I eat clams, mice, and even other lizards. Did you know that my cheeks hold venom in them? I am also one of the poisonous lizards in the world. I am mostly nocturnal and I sleep most of the day in my burrow. For my venom I have grooved teeth. Not like snakes. I don't have fangs. I only actually hang on to an animal for a long time to get venom into the animal's body. A female Gila monster can lay 3-13 eggs. I am actually called beaded because of my skin. Mostly my body temperature is always the same as the temperature around me. When I am threatened I burrow underground or I inflate myself. My life span is about 20 years. In the winter I hibernate until the summer sun heats up my burrow. Sometimes I shed my skin. I can weigh 3-5 pounds. My tongue helps me understand the environment around me. I hunt during twilight, or dawn, or dusk. The book Nature's Children Lizards by Bill Ivy is different from the Searchasaurus and Yahooligans on the Internet because the book told more about what I eat and do. They're the same because the Internet and the book both have ideas about what I eat and that I am one of the two poisonous lizards in the world. I think Bill Ivy wrote better than the Internet because he told more about that I am poisonous and that I don't have fangs. Remember, I am a happy Gila Monster. |
Gia May 2004 Me, the Fascinating Pet Parrot! Hi, my name is Parrot. I have big fluffy feathers and they are all extremely colorful. I also have a big nose. It is huge! I have very nice eyes. Well anyway, if you ever want to feed me, I do have a menu you know! I love to eat. I will eat anything like fruit bark and also worms. That might make me give you a tip! You can find me in front of the TV but most of the time you can find me with people because I am a PET parrot. I am so fascinating that I would like you to know more about me. I can really talk. Sometimes you have to keep repeating things. Also I spend a lot of time grooming. It is one of my hobbies. I also am amazing because I am completely social. If I do not have a lot of time spent with me I may need animal therapy. Some facts they said about me on the Internet are about some parrot named the Princess Parrot who lives in trees. I am 110 grams. I am 45 centimeters long. Most of us Princess Parrots are endangered. Also a parrot just like me is 20 centimeters long and lives most likely 5 years long. I eat meat and plants. And a Monkey Eating Parrot lives in New Zealand. I am endangered. I think they described me in a great book from Nature's Children by Frank Puccio. He had great details in the book about me. I think this because I like being read not on the Internet! Find you at someone's house! (Hopefully with someone in that house!) |
