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THINGS TO DO 2 - TONGA
Hey, just had a few more ideas for you to find out more about things I discovered on my journey through Tonga. I still think you should do some work too.
See if you can find the different island groups in Tonga. The southern one is Tongatapu, the next one north is called Hapai'i, north of that is Vava'u and the most nothern group is called Niuas. If you want you can try and use the google map we have on our site or use a world atlas. A world atlas is a book with maps of all the countries of the world. It is fun to look at and try and find where you live.
I told you, and I hope you remember, that coral islands, like some of those in Tonga, often have a coral reef around the outside. You could try and draw something like this. You would first need a pen and paper. Then find a round object and place it on the paper and draw around the outside. You could use a cup or a can. Then try and find an object which is a little bit bigger. Put this over the circle you have drawn and draw another one. Now you have one small circle, which is the island, and one bigger one, which is the reef around the outside. You could colour the island green, and the water between the reef and the island blue. The water outside the reef could be a darker blue as it will be deeper. Now you have your own circular coral island. The distance across your island, through the centre, is called the diameter. This means the second object you drew around has a bigger diameter than the first one.
I said that if the earth gets warmer then some Tongan islands may disappear. This is because if it does get warmer then the ice at the poles will melt and the sea level will rise. You can see how this happens, grown ups showed me but you will need to ask someone to give you some ice cubes and a glass. All you do is pretend the bottom of the glass is the water level now. Put the ice cubes in and wait for them to melt. There should now be water on top of the bottom of the glass. This is what will happen if the earth gets warmer and the ice melts. Hey, I found a great website to tell you more about global warming,have a look at it. See how you can make a difference too. We all can do something.
More work for you. I hope you still like me but I am trying to help you find out lots of fun things. Try and find out all the kingdoms in the world? I think there are more than 20. Do you live in one?
I don't like riots. People get hurt and fightng and violence are really wrong. But how can you make things change if they are wrong too? I said you could sit down and talk about it but can you think of any other ways or things you coud do?
You know I said that Tongans always have lots of brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles and cousin living near them. Do your family live near you? Whatever, you could make a family tree to show all your relatives and then write on where they live. I found another site to help you do this. It's http://www.genealogy-guide.org.uk/family-tree.html and it explains everything and has a free chart you can download and use. If you want, when you have done it, you can email it to me.
Do you know what a continent is? It is a collection of countries. For example, Europe is one continent and France, Italy, Germany and Spain are just some of the countries which make up Europe. Try and find the names of the other continents. I told you in the bit about houses of the man who had an Olympic torch in his house. The Olympics are held every four years in different cities around the world. The cities are in countries and the countries are in continents. Would you like to make a list of all the cities, countries and continents that the Olympics have been held since they started up again in 1896, which is over 100 years ago. I have started the list for you.
Year City Country Continent
2008 Bejing China Asia
2004 Athens Greece Europe
OK, that's all I''m doing, off you go starting in 2000.
Do you remember the little boy on his bike on the grass street in Tonga. If not go and check Tongan houses. He has to ride home past ten houses all next to each other. Each house is 10 metres wide, how far must he ride to his house. There are also ten houses on the other side of the road, how many houses will he pass?
I just read my writing about the Hopa, the big, harder banana. That made me think about the different senses we have. There are five of them. Do you know what they are? Often you use more than one sense. Hey, try this game. Put on a blndfold. You can use any piece of material but just make sure you can't see. OK, Now ....oh wait a minute. Read all this before you put the blindfold on. I am silly. OK again. Get mummy or daddy or a sister or brother or a friend to feed you something. Try and tell what it is. Can you do it, because you have lost one sense (there's a clue to the senses). Maybe you can think of other games to play where you lose one sense.
A grpwn up played me a really lovely song once. It was about a little boy who was blind so he couldn't see but he wanted to know what colour everything was. You can listen to it here. It's really clever and really makes you think what it must be like to be blind.
How do you fancy making your own kiekie? It's so easy. You can use almost anything. All you need to do is take a piece of material, or even a strip of paper, and make it long enough to wrap around your waist. Lay this piece out on the ground. Then attach, using glue or selloptape, strips of something hanging down from this strip. You can attach as many or as few as you want. You can also draw patterns on them if you are using paper. Then put the original strip back around your waist, fasten it in some way, and you have your own kiekie. Aren't you clever?
Now someone told me that some of you were laughing when I was trying to stand on one leg. Well you try it. Go on. It's not so easy is it? But having done that, can you hop? That is when you jump on one leg. Try that. First try it with the right leg, then the left. Can you do it longer with one leg than the other? Which one is best?
Tongans make lots of tapa. They do it by taking the bark off a tree, soaking it in water to make it softer, then hammering it even softer before letting it dry. Did you know you can do the reverse? You can make paper harder and model it into a different shape, like a globe. And now, Mister Teddy, the brainy one, is going to tell you how.
1. Find a newspaper but make sure mummy and daddy have read it.
2. Cut it into long strips about 3 cms wide.
3 Make some glue in a fairly large pot. There are wo ways to do this. One needs an adult to help a bit. The first way you can do on your own means you need to mix together one cup of flour with one cup of water in the pot. You need to keep stirring until it is smooth. The other way is to add one cup of flour to 5 cups of boiling water and that is why you need an adult. Boil it for about three minutes and then let it cool.
4.Next you need to find something to use as a mould. That means something you can build around. The very best thing is a balloon. Find someone to blow it up for you.
5.Then dip a strip of newspaper into your glue. Remove any extra mixture by sliding your fingers from top to bottom of the strip.
6.Lay the strip over the surface of the balloon. Make it as smooth as possible either with your fingers, this will get you nice and messy, or use a paintbrush. It needs to be smooth so you can paint it.
7.Repeat this until you have covered the balloon completely. Then let it dry.
8.Then cover it again and let that dry. The more times you cover it, the stronger it will be.
9.Next put some more newspaper on a table or the floor and put your covered balloon there to dry. It msut dry completely.
10.When it is dry, ask an adult to help you. They need to get a pin, poke it carefully through the paper and burst the balloon.
11.Then you can paint your globe. Any colours you like but don't press too hard.
12.Take a picture and send it to me. I want to see it.
This is called papier mache. You can use other sorts of paper if mummy and daddy are slow readers of newspapers.
Send me something. I want you to send me your designs for tapa cloth. Just draw them on a piece of paper and either send that to me or, ask someone older and scan them into an email. Come on. I will give a prize to the best one. I will, promise.
Whales are the biggest mammals in the world. You can try and find out what a mammal is. This is a good place to start. I saw whales, well nearly, in Tonga. They had come up from the South Pole to have their babies. You can see the South Pole on our google map. This site will tell you more about Humpback whales and where they travel to. You could also try and find out about othet types of whales. The biggest in the world is the Blue Whale. They can be up to 33 metres long. I am about 20 cms long. I feel rather small.
All over the world there are stone structures which were built a very long time ago. A grown up told me that some of them might have been a bit like a calendar. They could tell you what time of year it is. They did this because the sun is in a different position each day as well at different times in the year. You can see this happen as long as the sun is shining. All you need is a stick about a metre long. Really, nothing else. Put the stick in the ground where the sun can shine on it. See what time it is and where the shadow points. Put a stone at the end of the shadow at say 9'o clock, then 12'o clock and then at 3'o clock. See how it moves during the day. Now, if you have lots of time, look at the position of the sun in about a month. Is the end of shadow in the same place or not? Then talk to an adult and try and find out what is happening.
TEDDY'S FANTASTIC TREASURE HUNT
Remember your first clue from Fiji. Here is the second one. You may have to ask for help but I am sure someone will know. You need to find the name for the cloth Tongans make from the bark of a tree. The word has four letters. Two are vowels and are the same letter. You need this letter and add it to the one you found in Fiji.
SOME ANSWERS
These are the Kingdoms of the world I found
Bahrain, Belgium, Brunei, Cambodia, Denmark, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Monaco, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Swaziland, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Tonga, United Kingdom
My little friend on his bike has to ride 100 metres and he will pass 20 houses
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