A 5th grade report on Australia

               

Natalie has been working tirelessly on a report about Australia for her 5th grade gifted class. I'm not sure of the specifications of the assignment but I know she had to write a paper of some length (maybe 5 pages or so), prepare 2 audio/visual aids, and give a presentation. I was so impressed with her work this year (particularly the visual aids) that I wanted to share. Above is one of her art pieces. It is a topographical map of Australia. The different colors represent the height of the land with blue being the lowest. She also added the dingo fence (described below), Lake Eyre, a kangaroo, and me (a little flag at the bottom right). Below is some of the paper. I cut it for brevity. Hopefully I have a future researcher on my hands although I think the current career prospect is equine veterinarian. Great job Natalie!

"Welcome to the land down under where many records have been broken. Learn about many fascinating creatures,  exciting locations and much much more in Australia the land down under!!The largest formation ever made by living creatures is named the Great Barrier Reef.  It is the world’s largest coral formation. It stretches 1,250 miles (2010 kilometers) along the north eastern coast. It consists of 2,500 living creatures!! It is even visible from the moon!!! Another Australian record breaker is Lake  Eyre. It is the lowest point in all of Australia!! It is located in the Outback and because of that it is normally just a dry bed of salt!

     The highest point on Australia is Mount Kosciusko (Coo-sce-usko).  It is 7,310 feet above the nearby pacific.   It is almost the tallest point in the world. Australia consists of 6 states. The largest city is Sydney. That is where Nemo was trapped in a fish tank to be given to a dentist’s daughter. Almost one fifth of Australia’s people live in Sydney.  Australia’s largest harbor is in Sydney.   Also seen in Nemo is the

Sydney’s opera house. Tasmania broke away from Australia  more than 12000 years ago!  It is the island southeast of Australia.  It is wet,  cool, mountainous  and green. Such a beautiful site.

         Hop hop hop goes the Joey…. That’s a baby kangaroo. They spend most of their young lives inside  a warm fuzzy pouch that  their mother provides. They both eat herbs and grass. Kangaroos can leap great distances on powerful hind legs and a big strong tail.Koalas can eat up to 2 pounds of leaves each day. But the eucalypts leaves they eat all their lives, come from one tree.  That means koalas are in danger of extinction. They need help from us but it costs lots of money to put up fences.

        About 20% of Australia’s people were born in another country. About 85% work and live in cities. Slightly more girls live in Australia. This is because girls live longer than men. People living in the Outback, have to use a two way radio to connect to each other.

       The world’s largest fence is in Australia. It is called the dingo fence. It is 3700 miles long. It runs from the southeast corner of Australia to Queensland.  It was built to keep the wild yellowish colored dingoes away. Dingos are small animals that look like a cross from a fox and a dog.  Dingoes hunt and kill sheep.

Although the smart dingoes managed to dig under the fence.

       Scientists believe the oldest living thing, Kings Holly which is located in Tasmania, may be 20,000 years old.  Kings Holly is a giant bush.  It looks like the top of a redwood tree with more leaves!  It is very bushy and there is not another bush that looks like it in the world.The largest rock in the world, Uluru (of – Look – room) is in the Outback. The ancient Australians named it that.  It is one old rock!!

       Australia has a funny nickname.  It is “The Land Down Under”.  It was nicknamed that because it is under the southern hemisphere. Thank you for visiting the land down under, where many records have been broken. We hope you  will visit  again."