Nisha9

When Santa visits Sumner,

He doesn't have a sleigh,

But he does have bells jingling all the way.

He never has a wooly coat,

Nor a wooly hat,

But he did have sandles,

And a little note.

It said; I come here every year,

Why don't you give a cheer?

With presents here, presents there

Presents flying through the air!

Today I went to Murcury,                                                                                                                                                                      

Planet number 1,

Did you know that Murcury

is closest to the sun?

Then I went to Venus

All blazing red and hot,

I I felt as if, I was in, a giant cooking pot.

I stopped back at Earth,

to have a cup of tea,

this is where we live, you and me

Next I went to Mars,

My favovrite one of all,

there I found some ice,

and mountains very tall.

Then I went to Jupiter,

Which I really admire,

you can't land on Jupiter;

'cause it's a burning ball of fire.

I also went to Saturn,

planet number 6,

I saw lots ofrings,

Doing hoolahoop tricks

Then I went to Uranus,

planet number 7,

It's closer to us'

than it is to heaven.

Although Pluto is not a planet,

it's small, cute and round,

there is other planets like Pluto

that have also been found.

By Nisha Goldsworthy

Nichoalas Nickleby

was a cat

Nichoalas Nickleby

grew too fat!!!

chocolate buns

off a silver plate,

that's all

Nichoalas Nickleby ate!!!

everyone said

when they saw the cat,

''Nichoalas Nickleby

you're much too fat!!!

but Nichoalas Nickleby

didn't care.

he waddled away,

with his tail in the air!!! 

What do you think an okapi is? Is it a type of zebra, or maybe a horse, right? Well, the okapi is actually more closely related to the giraffe! In fact the okapi is the only living relative of the giraffe and was one of the last large mammals to be discovered in Africa                                                                                             

Like the giraffe, the Okapi has a very long tongue that can reach out and pull tender new leaves off forest trees. Their tongue is so long they can clean their eyes, ears and nose inside out!!! They are also the same sort of shape as giraffes, although Okapis are much smaller. The Okapis velvety coat is usually a dark brown chestnut. Their vaguely horse like head is lighter than the body with a black muzzle. Male okapis
have skin covered horns which symbolizes aggression. Females are usually larger than the male.

Okapis live in the deep dense rainforests of northeast Zaire in Africa. They are mostly found in the Ituri rainforest by streams or rivers that are surrounded by the red clay cliffs. The black and white stripes on their front and back legs are used for the young to follow their mothers through the denseness of the forests.

Okapis feed on shoots, buds, ferns, fruits, grasses, leaves, and seeds. They get minerals by eating sulfurous clay found along the riverbanks. They are ruminants like cows and giraffes. Most of the foods that Okapis eat are poisonous to humans. Okapis spend most of their time eating and foraging for food.     

An Okapis average life span is 30 years! The Okapis main predator is the leopard, but they are too fast for most other hungry animals.

It is very difficult to find okapis because they are very shy and live so deep in the forests. In fact, scientists didn't know they existed until 1901! The okapi is believed to be a mythical creature ‘the forest unicorn'

Okapis were unknown to science until 1901, when Sir Harry Johnston traveled to the Ituri Forest to investigate rumors of a strange donkey-like animal with striped legs. He managed to obtain skins at a Belgian Fort and sent them to the Zoological Society of London. They examined the skins and announced the discovery of a new species of horse and named it Equus johnstoni. Later Johnston stumbled across the tracks of an okapi, but they were unlike any horse tracks as the hooves were cloven. Two skulls and a complete skin were then discovered, and it was found out that the okapi was actually a forest giraffe, not a horse at all.

 Okapis are not very social creatures. They live on their own and only come together to breed. Sometimes they let each other come into their territory to forage for food.  

The bad thing is that there are very few of these wonderful animals left in the world. They are an endangered because of the forests that they live in are being cut down and also because poachers used to hunt them for their unusual coat. There are only 30,000 left in the wild today.

Overall, I think okapis are very strange, but wonderful animals. It would be so terrible if these amazing creatures became extinct. I strongly believe we can stop the okapi from ending up like the dodo. 

At school for our keeping our self safe unit,we have to look after eggs!!! My eggs name is Shelley. We have only just started looking after our our eggs. Lots of peoples eggs have cracked but mine hasn't yet[touch wood!!!]. We have to look after our eggs for 1 week and have to take them everywhere. Even if we do a sport, we have to take them to watch on the side lines! Looking after eggs is very fun and you should do it too!!!