The duck and swan families

Hello,

I really like it when my mom bring me to ANU. I like to enjoy the ANU garden. It is very big and beautiful. I like to observe the swan and duck families. They live in the creek at ANU garden.
My mom wants to find the white swan, but there is no white swan at ANU. They are all black swan (Cygnus atratus).

This is a black swan family. A mommy swan, a daddy swan and their two cute babies (cygnets). A mommy swan usually lays egg in the early of spring. It takes 35-40 days for the eggs to hatch into a cute cygnet.


Look at this! Mommy and daddy swan give swimming lesson to their babies.


They also give diving lesson to their babies! Do you think the cygnets will be a diver, a swimmer or a dancer?


The swan is almost entirely herbivorous. There was a lizard on the edge of the creek, an Australian water dragon, to be exact an Eastern water dragon (Physignathus lesueurii lesueurii). When daddy swan looked at it, he attacked it. "Honk! Honk!" Suddenly the lizard open its nuchal crest (a central row of spikes at the base of the head). It was so beautiful, but my mom couldn't take the picture.


Moreover, they teach their babies how to make friends with the duck family.


This is the duck family. Mother duck is teaching "eating manner" to their babies (ducklings). "Be quiet when you are eating! No fighting! You have to share the food with your 14 brothers and sisters!" said mommy duck.


"Follow the leader! Keep walking!" cried daddy duck. "Quack, quack, quack", answered the ducklings.


Well, that's my observation about the swan and the duck family. I like it!

Craft and art are fun!

Hello,

I made craft and art during my two week holidays. It was really fun!
I like to make origami. Origami is a Japanese word, 折り紙, from ori meaning folding and kami meaning paper. Well, I made some simple and easy origami. I also made some moderate difficult origami. Here they are:

The easy origami are ice cream, mushroom, cupcake, carrot, doughnut, candy, fox, tiger, butterfly fish, angel fish and ghost. The moderate difficult origami are a dog box, yukata (kimono), school uniform and a bird.


These are moderate difficult origami. My mom helped me make them. They are swan, iris, heart box, lily, flapping bird and chop-stick duck.


These are Kusudama, a traditional Japanese geometric origami, and jumping frog. You can hang a kusudama on the ceiling. It will be nice! Oh, do you want to push the back of the jumping frog? Come on, have a try! It will jump and jump and jump ... "Ribbit ... ribbit ... ribbit ..."


I also made many things from play-doh. Budhe Iwu helped me make them.
These are strawberries, apples, pastel, ice cream, doughnut, Chinese cake, pretzel, watermelon and sandwich.


I like to watch the Spy Kid movies and Agent Cody Bank. I also like to write a spy story. Here are some spy characters in my story, "the Brilliant Spy Kids"!

These are Josh and Teresa. Josh is a mountain climber. Teresa is an expert in computer and technology.


These are Lily, Rony and Curly. Lily is a fortune teller. Well, she is undercover. Rony is an expert in weapon. Curly is good at gadget and he likes to tell jokes.


This is Luna. She holds a black-belt karate.


These are Dr. Polly and Dr. Homer. Ssssstttt! They are evil! They like to make poison! Dr. Homer is small, because Dr. Polly turned him to small by the poison!

How do you like the end of my story? I hope the Brilliant Spy Kids can arrest the evil. Do you agree?

Floriade 3

Hello,

This afternoon we went to Floriade again. Actually, this was the first time Budhe Iwu and Tante Alfa had time to visit Floriade. We watched Indonesian dance and song performance on a stage at Floriade.

The first performance was Sajojo dance from Papua, followed by a folk song from Papua. The rythm was so funky! I like it!


The second performance was Nuansaku dance. It was created by I Gede Aria and it was performed the first time at Floriade 2010! The dance was about the beautiful flowers at Floriade. The music was so unique. It was a mix between Balinese and Javanese. Cool!


The third was a medley of ten folk songs from west to east of Indonesia. They called it Indonesia mini. They sang Sinanggar Tulo, Soleram, Kicir-kicir, Gambang Suling, Paris Barantai ... and Yamko Rambe Yamko. Cool!


The forth was Cendrawasih dance. The three dancers here were mothers! One of them is Mbak Ririn, Budhe Iwu's oldest daughter. It was about Cendrawasih, the beautiful paradise bird from Papua. Beautiful!


The fifth was Rancak dance from Sumatra. It was about pencak silat, a traditional Indonesian martial art. Cool!


The Indonesian dance and song performance were splendid! After watching the performance, we took pictures of flowers again.












It was raining when we were about to go home. We had to wait until the rain stopped. Finally, the weather was nice again. We saw black swans were swimming in the lake. "Mommy, I want you to take a picture of me and that swans!"


On the way home, we saw a beautiful rainbow in the sky. "Mommy, look! Beautiful rainbow! ROYGBIV!"


I really had a good time today! I love the sandwich that my mom made for me. I also like fish and chips that we had at O'Connor. I love the flowers at Floriade and I like the performance! Alhamdulillah. Thank you, Budhe!

Ocean

Hi,

All students at the North Ainslie Primary School planned to have an excursion to the Tomakin beach. However, the trip was cancelled twice due to weather. The weather was not good and the wave was very high. Now I am on holiday, semester break, for two weeks.

We learnt about ocean at school. OK, I am going to tell you about the ocean. There are many beautiful animals live in the ocean. Based on the sunlight penetration, there are three zones in the ocean: sunlight zone, twilight zone and midnight zone.

Dolphins, my favorite animal, live in the sunlight zone, at the very top of the ocean. Whales and jelly fish live in the twilight zone. Sparkly things and dumbo octopus live in the midnight zone.

Corals are plants that grow in the ocean. There are lots of different types and colors of corals. Corals live in twilight zone and midnight zone. Some of them grow very fast, but some do not.

Now I am going to tell you about sea horse. Sea horses are found mainly in warm, shallow coastal seas. They live among seagrass, mangroves, corals and kelp. In these places they are protected against strong currents and storms. Some sea horses live in estuaries, the sheltered places where rivers meet the sea.



About 25 species of sea horses are found in Australian waters. Some species are widespread and others are found only in certain areas, for example the Pygmy sea horses are found along the coast of Queensland and Japan. The Southern potbelly sea horses live along the Victorian and Tasmanian coasts. There are about 35 known species of sea horses in the world. They are secretive animals, more species might yet be discovered.

Soon after hatching, the young sea horses are ejected from the pouch. The male pumps and pushes for hours to empty his pouch. This usually happens at night. Small sea horse species might produce just five young, but larger species might produce 1,500 young.

We have done growing salt crystal experiment, too!



How do we make it?
We boil about 1 cup (250 ml) of water, add 1/4 cup of salt. The solution will be supersaturated when salt crystals begin to collect on the bottom of the pan.

Then, we pour the solution in a plastic glass. We soak a piece of straw in the solution until it is saturated and sinks to the bottom of the glass. The straw will act as a template or base for crystal growth. We put the glass in a sunny location. Crystals will form as the water evaporates.

Science is fun!