Savannah School News
Second Grade                                                       June Issue

Elephants

Elephants have big, floppy ears. An elephant has a long trunk. Elephants have large tusks. Elephants have short and skinny tails. An elephant is really large. Elephants have a nose at the end of their trunk. Elephants have big legs for swimming.

An elephant's habitat is grasslands. There are some trees and bushes. If an elephant cannot find a water hole, they need to dig a hole in the puddles to get water.

An elephant is a herbivore because it doesn't eat meat. It only eats plants. Elephants provide food and shelter for other animals. Elephants eat plants and trees.

An elephant's enemies are lions and poachers. Elephants need speed to run away from their enemies. Baby elephants can weigh up to 500 pounds.

Elephants

Elephants are the largest animal in Africa. It has four very large feet. It also has two sharp tusks. It has a tail that is short and skinny. Its color is gray. It has big, floppy ears and two small eyes with eyelashes that are four inches long. It has five toenails on each foot.

There is not a lot of rain in the savannah. The climate is very hot. Some water holes are in the savannah. There is a lot of grass. There are some trees, but not a lot of them.

An elephant eats about 500 pounds of food each day. Its foods are trees and grass. They are herbivores. That means they eat grass. Elephants eat twice as much as they need. They also drink a lot of water.

Elephants wave their ears around to keep cool. Elephants have lions for enemies. Poachers hunt elephants for their tusks. The elephant is the largest living land animal.

Elephants have six sets of teeth. The elephant's tail is used for flicking flies. The tail weighs 22 pounds.

Giraffes

A giraffe is the tallest animal living. A giraffe is brown and tan and has spots like a leopard. A giraffe has a  black tongue that can stretch out as much as 18 inches long. Male giraffes are usually taller than the female giraffes. Giraffes are spotted just like leopards. Their colors are brown and tan.

A giraffe lives on the African savannah. Savannahs are covered with tall grass, scattered trees and thorn bushes. They are also known as the tropical grasslands. In summertime, it rains in the savannah and leaves shoot out off tree branches and green grasses shoot up.

A giraffe eats tall grass or leaves off tall trees. Giraffes are herbivores. Giraffes eat bark, flowers and fruit. A giraffe spreads its legs apart to get a drink.

Giraffes

The male giraffe is taller than the female giraffe. The giraffe has four legs. They have spots like leopards. They are 18 feet tall.

The giraffe lives on the African savannah. The savannah is a grassland. Many animals including the giraffe live on the savannah. 

They eat leave on tall trees, tall bushes and tall grass, too. Its favorite food is leaves on acacia trees. The thorns on the acacia trees do not bother the giraffe at all.

The giraffe has a black tongue. They can give birth any day in the dry season.

Zebras

The zebra has hooves and skinny legs. Zebras run up to 40 miles per hour. Now, that's really fast to us! The tail on a zebra is short and hairy. Zebras have soft fur with black and white stripes all over its body. Zebras have white square teeth to chew grass. Zebras have black eyes that blend in with the black stripe that goes around the eyes. Zebra's ears are pointy. The mane on the zebra is black and white just like the skin. The zebra's habitat is grasslands. They share the waterholes with other animals. They have hardly any water to drink. It rains once a year but still they hardly have any water. 

Zebras are herbivores because they eat grass and they eat flowers, leaves, hay, vegetables and fruit.

Zebra's litter size is one baby at a time. The enemies of the zebras are wild cats and hyenas that eat the leftovers from zebras. When a carnivore comes, it is the zebra that is first to run.

Zebras

Zebras have a black tail that is like string. Their fur is soft and their legs are skinny. They have hooves and black and white stripes. Their mouth is black and their teeth are square. Their nose is on top of their mouth. Their ears are pointy and their eyes are black. It stands four to five feet tall. Zebra tails are long. Their eyesight is good. 

They live in a grassland. They share their waterholes with other animals. There isn't very much water in the waterhole because it only rains once a year. If people are building cities on the savannah, the zebra is the first to run.  Zebras live in a large herd called a colony. A zebra is a daytime animal which means it is only active during the day.

A zebra is a herbivore which means it only eats plants, like grass and leaves. Their enemies are cheetah, lions and other carnivores. Zebras' favorite food is the leaves from acacia trees because they have sap. They like the sap because it is sweet. Zebras eat many things like fruits and vegetables and lot of grass and leaves. They sometimes eat hay and weeds. The fruit that they eat are apples. The vegetables that they eat are carrots and lettuce.

When they are little, they are babies. Zebras constantly horse around with other zebras. Zebras can run up to 40 miles per hour. Zebras can see black and white. A zebra is a horse-like animal that is related to the horse.

Zebras are difficult to tame and train to work. Some kinds of zebras are nearly extinct but others are numerous. When zebras are babies, they are called colms. Zebras' stripes don't look alike so the mom will know which zebra is hers. Zebras' stripes help them hide from their enemies because their enemies can only see black and white. In the 19th century some zebras were captured by people and put to work. They have a body like a horse. Their earliest ancestor was half horse on the back and half zebra on the front. A zebra sounds like a lot of birds singing with a bad throat.

Lions

The lion has four paws and five claws on each paw. The lion has very sharp teeth and a lot of fur. The lion has a long tail.

Lions live in big, dark caves. The lion's home has tall grass and lots of animals. It's called a savannah. The savannah has lots of grass, plants and trees. The lion drinks from waterholes that the elephants make because the elephants stomp in the water to make a big hole. In the savannah, sometimes it rains and sometimes it doesn't.

The lion eats zebras if they are hungry. The lion is a carnivore. A carnivore is a meat-eater.

The lion's enemies are people because people hunt them. The lion loves to lie in the shade and clean itself.

Lions

Lions have four paws. Its teeth are very sharp so it can chew its prey. It has a long tail. Sometimes lions look harmless but can spring any second. A lion's mane protects its neck and scares away predators.

The lions' habitat has caves, grass, trees, and waterholes. In fact, elephants help make waterholes for lots of animals. Lions can get the animals that come to drink. Its climate is hot and arid, that means dry.

After they eat, they lie around. Lions are carnivores. That means they eat meat. Carnivores, like lions, eat zebras, wildebeests, and other animals. Female lions usually do most of the hunting but the males get to eat first.

Lions are the most powerful predators on the savannah. A lion's roar is so loud that it can be heard from five miles away. A pride has ten to twenty lions, or as many as thirty-five. A pride is a group of lions. Some lions get to live to be about twenty years old. A lion's claws are sharper than any other animals.