Penguins and Walruses, by Yoshiki

Penguins live in Antarctica but some penguins live in the forest. Walruses swim fast but penguins swim faster. Walruses are not fast on the ice. They are slow. Walruses live in Antartica. They both live in the sea. Penguins eat fish. Walruses eat penguins so penguins must be careful. I like both of them. Which do you like the best?

Lions and Gerbils, by Jack

Lions and gerbils are mammals. Lions can eat animals and gerbils eat insects, but gerbils can also eat meat too. Lions are the king of the jungle. Many different types of gerbils live in the Sahara. So both of them live in Africa. Lions are big cats but gerbils are small rodents. Both lions and gerbils need to drink ater and both have long tails. Both lions and gerbils will bite you so be careful!

Pandas and African Elephants by Sora

Most pandas live in China but some pandas live in the zoo. African elephants live in Africa, but some live in the zoo the same as pandas. Pandas are a type of bear. When they are born they have pink skin and when they are not a baby they become black and white. Elephants are the largest animal on land. They have the biggest teeth, noses and feet and they are gray. The same things are they live on land, they are mammals, they are endangered, they don't eat meat, they walk slowly, they wake up in the day and they can't fly. I like both of them but I like pandas more than elephants because they are fluffy.

Bazaar at KOBILS, March 22 by Meg, grade 4

We are raising money for Pennies for Peace!

Pennies for Peace is a charity that aims to build schools in rural areas in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pennies For Peace build schools for boys and girls, but mostly girls. That’s because most girls can’t get education in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In Korphe (where Pennies for peace built their first school) the kids use to write on the ground with sticks because they didn’t have pencils or paper. Korphe is in the mountains so it’s really cold. They had no school building either! The teacher only came three times a week, so when the teacher wasn’t there they reviewed what he taught them outside in the cold. Greg (the person who started Pennies for Peace) felt sorry for them. So he started Pennies for Peace to raise money to help them build a school.

Pennies for Peace collects pennies. One hundred yen is a teacher’s salary for a day, or pays a month worth of school for one kid in rural Pakistan. With one yen you can buy a pencil but many kids don't have pencils. So that is why we decided to collect money for Pennies For Peace. There is a jar on Oku san’s desk in our school. Please put your one yens in the jar and help children in the rural areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan to go to school.

Our bazaar for Pennies For Peace is on March the 22nd. You can help by giving things to us so we can sell them. We will have a talent show too! Please volunteer to entertain everybody or help us on the day.

Collect collect collect one yens!

My Friend's Garden, by Meg, grade 4

I have a friend called Hannah. She lives in England. When I go to England in the summer, me and Hannah’s friends go camping in her garden. She has a huge, I mean really, really, really big garden and about 15 kids and their parents camp there. When I get to her garden it feels like my summer’s just begun.

The garden looks like a really big J or a wrong way round L shape and it is very green. There is a vegetable garden where they grow lots of things and we eat some of them when we are camping. At the top of the garden it looks never ending but if you walk down there it only takes about two minutes to get to the bottom.

There is a river at the end of the garden and a platform for fishing from. When you put your feet in the water it’s very cold and if you leave them there for a long time the fish come to nibble on your feet. If you reach down to the mud it feels squidgy but nice, really nice between your toes.

There is a shed near the top of the garden. We have “Shed’s Got Talent” there. It’s a talent show. The people who are camping sing, dance, act, tell jokes or make poems. If you win first place you can get five pounds and a t-shirt. Five pounds is about 1000 yen.

Back in the garden we play lots of games. When we play hide and seek, it takes about 30 minutes for one game. At night we play “Man Hunt”, which is like hide and seek but you use torches and you can run around. It’s more exciting than hide and seek and a bit scary because the garden is so black. There is also this home made swing there too! Someone pulls us back and forth and lets go and then we crash into the bush in front of the swing. There is a big trampoline too! Everyone loves jumping on it.

Even when we stay three days, I don`t want to leave that garden because I have so much fun.

Dolphin by Karen, grade 6

A Bottle-nosed Dolphin is a mammal.It's 3-4.2 meters long and weighs 160-270 kilograms. It eats fish,shrimp and squid. It lives in temperate and tropical coastal waters. Temperate means not hot and not cold. It has only 1 baby. Its lifespan is 25-30 years. Dolphins communicate or speak by sound, clicking and whistling.

Whale Shark by Soichiro, grade 3

The whale shark is a fish. It can be 15.2-18 meters long. It weighs as much as 13,600 kilograms. It is a meat eater. It eats small fish and plankton. It lives in the tropical seas.

Everybody doesn't know the number of young and its lifespan. Little is known about it. It's a mystery fish.