2011: What I Did, 2012: What I'm Looking Forward To.

Hello everyone. It is me and I'm going to talk about what I did over the break and what I'm looking forward too. Hope you ENJOY!
  First I'm going to talk about what I did. Well I stayed at Shreiner for the first week. It was kind of boring, but fun in the same way.


Then I really stayed home for the most of the time. I got many presents for Christmas like a yo yo.
 Actual picture.
I also got a rip stick. Which is kind of a skateboard. Another thing I got is delicious Wint-o-Green mints. Those are the the mints that are really minty and Mr. Meyer gives to us.
    I stayed up all night celebrating New Years and 2012. I ate a TON of lemon pepper wings. They taste so good in my stomach!

   I did have a happy New Years and I hope you did too. I wonder how long you guys stayed up?
This is what I had a..........


Last I'm going to talk about is what I'm looking forward to. I am looking forward to my first year of middle school. It might be scary unless I go to Shreiner because I know all my teachers and I am going to be one of the older kids. If I went to a regular middle school I will be the younger kid.
  I hope I do better in school. I'm kind of doing pretty good in school, but I need to do better. According to my mom pretty good isn't good enough. Ha Ha!
   I'm looking forward to turning 11. Since its my birthday I'm going to get presents or money.

    Also I'm looking forward to getting a phone. Who knows when I'm getting a phone, but I am hopefully soon.

 

What I'm not looking forward on is the world ending. You know how people say the world is going to end on December 21.

 Well, I don't believe in that. Hopefully it is not true and we can all live peacefully. Then again I won't jinx it. This is what people will think happen. These people are crazy.

I really don't have any resolutions. I think they are a waste of my time.

Well, thanks for reading my blog. Have a good 2012. Until December 21. Ha ha ha just kidding. BYE!

Amphibians

Hey! It's me Julian. We are going to learn about amphibians today. When you think of amphibians you think of frogs.

What you didn't know is that there is other amphibians like salamanders and caecilians.
     
Salamander                                           Caecilians

Time to learn.

First we are going to learn about the characteristics of amphibians.
Amphibians live a double life. They live half of their life on land and half on water.
 
They start off their life in water so they have gills.
    The gills are the blue part.
Through metamorphosis they grow lungs so then they can live on land.
 
 They lay a lot of  eggs in the water. The eggs don't have any shells. They are protected by a clear jelly like substance that has to be in wet conditions. They can lay up to 30,000 eggs at a time. That's a lot of eggs for a mother.

They shed their skin. After they shed it they eat it. GROSS!!! That is really weird, but it is true.

They do have special skin. This special skin lets water pass through it easily. It is like there are holes in the skin. It also absorbs oxygen which helps amphibians breathe under water. The skin is moist and smooth.
   They also have webbed feet. They have webbed feet to help them in the water.




Time for the next subject, the groups of the amphibians.
 The first group of amphibians were going to talk about is the Anuras. The Anura group includes frogs and toads. When you think of amphibians this group is the one you think of..
      
This is your frog and your toad. Anuras have short bodies. They have strong legs for jumping high to the sky.

 They also have no tails when they are an adult. The kids have tails. They go through metamorphosis.

Metamorphosis is when an animal changes a lot. Metamorphosis happens when they are young.
This group are carnivores.

The next group we are going to talk about is the Uradeles. That group has salamanders and newts.
 
First is the Salamder and then the Newt.
    The Uredeles have long bodies unlike the frogs. They have flattened tails for swimming. That means they mostly stay in water. They have short legs which is another reason they stay in water. Most are between 4 inches and 8 inches. For defense the use their tails which is used to scare predators.

 The last group we are going to talk about is the Apoda. That name sounds like something from Star Wars.
 The amphibian that is in Apoda is a Caecilian.

They are practically blind. That means it can't see well. It has a snake like body. It is carnivorous. They can live from 5-20 years. Most of them are 5-14 inches long and be 1 inch wide.


    Since we are done talking about the characteristics here is a fun video for you to listen to.

 I hoped you learned something about amphibians. See you next time!

Bony Fish!

Hey its me once more. Do you know why you are here for? You are here to learn about bony fish. To know exactly what you are going to learn read this.

What You Are Going To Learn

1. How bony fish float.
2. What the role of each fin is.
3. What a lateral line on a fish is.
4. How bony fish breathe.
5. What cold blooded means.
6. What bony fish eat.
7. Interesting facts about three types of bony fish.

Before we start learning about bony fish here is a picture of bony fish....

First, let's talk about how bony fish float. Do you ever wonder how bony fish float? Well, I'm going to tell you now. Fish float because they have a swim bladder. A swim bladder sounds really weird. Another name for it is the gas bladder. Here is a picture of it to clear your mind.

It is not really real it is just an drawing.
The swim bladder is an organ in the fish. That organ helps it float while it isn't swimming. A swim bladder is like our lungs. It can get bigger and smaller. The bladder gets filled with oxygen that is collected from the surrounding water from the gills. When the bladder is filled with this oxygen gas it expands and allows the fish to float.

Fins
Let's talk about the roles of each fin. Before we start here is a picture of the fins.



Now you know where all the fins are. GREAT!!!
   The first fin we are going to to pelvic fin. The pelvic fin adds stability for a fish. Just in case you didn't know, stability means firmness in position. The pelvis fins also slow down the fish when they are going fast.
    The second fin we are going to talk about is the pectoral fin. The pectoral fin helps the fish turn. So basically it works everyday 24/7.

Can you see the fish turning?
Answer: yes






     Time for the third one. The third one is the anal fin. The anal fin basically adds more stability for the fish. It copies the pelvic fin. COPIER!!!!!!!
 The anal fin is a copier.






Time for the caudal fin. The caudal fin helps propel the fish like a helicopter.

Last but not least the dorsal fin. This fins job is used for changing directions fast. So if a shark is chasing it it has to it's dorsal fin.
    Fish says AHHH!!






That is it for the fins. Time to learn about the lateral line on a fish.






On a fish there is a lateral line. Like the following....









A lateral line is a sense used to detect movement and vibration. It also detects preys and predators because of the current. So basically it has eyes and ears on its body. You might think that is totally non sense,but it is true.
Here is another picture of a lateral line.




Time to talk about how fish breathe. How do fish breathe? Time for me to figure it out.
Fish have to breathe in water. Fish can breathe because they have gills. Most fish have four gills. They breathe through their gills. They switch gases , take in oxygen, and release carbon dioxide.
Here is a picture of the gills.



Next on the list is.... What does cold blooded mean?  Time for me to tell you.
Cold blooded means animals have no control of their body temperature. So if we were cold blooded, on the 100 degree weather days we could not make our self cooler.

If we were cold blooded once again on the 10 degrees weather days we could not make ourselves warmer. So we would be really cold.


We are almost done. Time to learn what fish eat. Different types of fish eat different things. Most fish eat plankton, crustaceans, algae, and sea grass.

Time for the last thing. I'm going to talk about three types of bony fish.
The first fish I'm going to talk about is the percula clown fish. I chose this because it looks like Nemo.

     










They look so alike.

Facts
It lives in the Western Pacific Ocean. It is about 3-4 inches long. It gets along with other species. It must have tons of friends then. It is an omnivore so it can eat a whole bunch of things. It can live in an aquarium so humans can take care of it. It can live up to our age, 10.
Once again here is a picture.


The second fish I chose is the Purple Tang. I chose this because Dory from Nemo is a Tang.


They are 10 inches in length. They are herbivores so they only eat plants. It lives near the Red Sea and Persian. This is also an animal that can be found in an aquarium. It can live up to 10 years or longer.


The last fish were going to talk about is the African tiger fish. I chose this because it sounds really cool.


As you can see it has sharp teeth. It can grow up to 30 inches long. WOW! It eats smaller fish. Of course it is found in African rivers. It is aggressive. At least with that sharp teeth it isn't called the North American Tiger Fish.


I hoped you learned something today. If you didn't please comment. If you thought something was bad help me and please comment. See you next time bye.