The Galapagos Islands By Andrew, Jacob, Jared, Madeleine, Morgan, Nate, and Nicole.
We learned about the Galapagos Islands. We used a computer web site http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/explorations/adaptation/ and learned about the animals that live there. Charles Darwin went there on his ship, the Beagle. He found clues, drew pictures and took notes about the plants and animals. We were scientists as we found clues. We used our Galapagos journals to draw pictures and to describe how it looked. There were six clues. We used four clues to find out which animal we were tracking. It was a giant tortoise. In another game, we were scientists as we read and learned about each type of tortoise and how it adapted to its environment. We then matched each type to the island where they live based on what we had learned. Everyone chose one animal to learn more about.
Galapagos Giant Tortoises By Andrew Galapagos giant tortoises weigh 500 pounds. Tortoises are about four feet long. They eat leaves, fruit and lichens and they drink a lot of water. The female lays up to 15 eggs. They are buried and hatch 240 days later. Galapagos is the Spanish word for tortoise. There are problems. Seamen caught tortoises to eat them. Forest fires and volcanoes can kill them. Dogs, pigs, and goats were brought to the island. They hurt the eggs and they eat the plants the tortoises eat.
Blue Footed Booby By Jacob The blue footed booby has blue feet. Booby means something or someone to fool. They are not afraid of people. They have no natural predators. They are easily captured so they were called boobies. There are three types of Boobies. There are masked boobies, red-footed boobies and blue-footed boobies. The different types don’t bother each other when they are feeding. When the blue footed boobies are born their feet are not blue. I studied the blue footed booby because I was very interested in it.
Flamingos By Jared They eat fish. Caribbean Flamingos live in the Caribbean ,Mexico and the Galapagos Islands. They are good swimmers and they can fly 34 miles per hour. They come to marshes to find food. They don’t drink the saltwater.
The Iguana By Madeleine The iguana is active during the day. It has good eyesight. Its touch is not sensitive like our skin because it is scaly. It has a third eye but it is not a normal eye. It can only tell light from dark. The iguana has six senses. Five senses are just like ours but the sixth one is not. It can sense chemicals and can tell if you are a girl or a boy. I picked the iguana because it has vibrant colors.
The Galapagos Tortoise By Morgan The tortoises living on the Galapagos Islands came to live there hundreds of thousands of years ago. Galapagos is the word tortoise in Spanish. When you say Galapagos tortoise, you are saying tortoise twice. The Galapagos Tortoises are one of the oldest living animals. They can live to almost 200 years old. They are the world’s largest tortoises. They can weigh over 500 pounds and measure 6 feet long from head to tail. These tortoises are so big a person could ride on their backs. They have very big shells and long necks. Over the years the Galapagos Tortoise has changed. To keep living they had to change how they looked. They had to have long necks to reach for food. If they could not get the food they needed they would die.
Iguana By Nate An iguana has a bump in the middle of its head. It cannot see things like food with this third eye; it can only see light and dark. Its regular eyes can probably see color like we can. Every month an iguana sheds its skin. An iguana can also shed its tail if it is scared. An iguana has spikes down its backs. Iguanas have six senses. The sixth sense is Jacobson’s Organ. It is on top of its mouth. It can sense chemicals and can tell if another iguana is male or female. The marine iguana can swim. This kind of iguana only lives in the Galapagos Islands. Most iguanas are between two and three feet long which is about the size of a dog. They have teeth like saws. They are vegetarians. I chose the iguana because it’s my favorite creature anytime!
Blue Footed Booby By Nicole I studied the blue footed booby because you don’t see them in the United States and because they have blue feet. They weigh about four pounds and they are 29-32 inches long. Their diet is fish and squids. They hunt for food together. When they see a school of fish they stop. One squeaks and they all jump in together so the fish can’t get away. Blue footed boobies are able to raise two chicks at a time. When they are babies, they don’t have blue feet.