Week 24 Mangrove Wilderness day 1

1. Week 24MangroveWildernessday 1

2. (Thanks to Clare Pechon, Independence, Lousiana) for voc. Slides.

3. p. 624 Text Structure: Sequence • Authors of expository nonfiction organize their ideas in what are called text structures. One text structure authors use is sequence. • Authors of scientific topics use sequence to describe growth or change in nature. • Authors of historical topics use sequence to explain events in history.

5. Read the paragraph. Then look at the graphic organizer below. It shows the sequence of the events in the paragraph. In summer, a female alligator makes her nest on a raised mound or bank near the water. Then she lays about thirty eggs and covers them with plants and grasses. About nine weeks later, the eggs hatch. For about two years, the baby alligators stay by their mother, often riding on her back or head. p. 625

6. EVENT 1: In summer, an alligator makes her nest. EVENT 2: She lays about thirty eggs. EVENT 3: The eggs hatch in about nine weeks.

7. Vocabulary words

8. remarkable A remarkable thing is something very special in a way that makes other people notice it. What is the most remarkable animal you have ever read about?

9. suitable Something is suitable if it is right for whatever it is being used for. Would a stormy day be suitable for a picnic ? Why or why not?

10. advantage When someone takes advantage of something, he or she makes good use of it. When might you take advantage of your community library?

11. extract When you extract something, you carefully pull it out of something else. Why might a farmer extract large rocks from a field?

12. withstand If you withstand a difficult time, you are able to get through it all right. Can a sandcastle withstand pounding waves? Explain your answer.

13. stealthy A stealthy animal is one that stays quiet and hidden as it moves about, so that others do not notice it. Which animal is stealthy – a cat or a cow? Why?

14. Background information on TREES

15. Florida’s Great Reefs p.626 Florida’s coral reefs are the home of a remarkable group of living things. Corals are actually very small animals that live in clusters called colonies. Corals eat tiny animals that float through the water. They also extract nutrients from plants that live inside their bodies. As individual corals die, new ones grow on top of them. Over time, the buildup of corals grows into a reef.

16. Coral reefs are very beautiful to look at. The tiny plants that live inside corals can cause them to take on all the colors of the rainbow. p.626

17. At night, stealthy predators such as eels swim around coral reefs, looking for a tasty meal. p.626

18. Coral reefs benefit people. One advantage is that they help protect nearby land from waves and storms. Reefs can help the economy of the places near where they grow. Millions of visitors swim, boat, and snorkel among coral reefs every year. p.627

19. Coral reefs are easily damaged. They cannot withstand a lot of human activity. Powerful storm waves can harm reefs. Damaged corals take a long time to grow back. Some coral reefs are hundreds of years old. p.627

20. Practice book page 138

21. Even under suitable conditions, it can take 1,000 years for a reef to grow from 1 foot to 16 feet in height. ... p.627

22. Practice book page 138

23. Genre Study Expository nonfiction gives facts and information about a topic. As you read, look for facts and details about a subject or topic. text structure—the way ideas and information are organized.

24.  628a

25. p.629 part 1

26. A frog, a crab, a fish, and a bird­—these four creatures, and many more, hunt, seek shelter, and raise their young in forests along the southern coast of Florida. They are part of a vast web of animal life that is supported by a remarkable kind of tree: the red mangrove. p.629

29. It is an odd-looking tree that seems to stand on stilts, and it grows where few other trees can—in salt water. The stilts are actually the mangrove’s roots. They are called prop roots, because they help prop, or support, the tree against the ocean’s strong waves and tides. p.630

30. What is unusual about where the red mangrove grows? Red mangrove trees grow in salt water.

31. Why does the red mangrove look like it is on stilts? Its roots are prop roots that support the tree against waves.

32. Red mangroves grow in warm tropical regions near the earth’s equator. In Florida they flourish along the edges of the swampy Everglades, at the southern tip of the state. There the land is broken up into thousands of small islands by inlets and waterways. p.630

33. The trees thrive in these inlets, or estuaries, where fresh river water leaves the land and meets the salty ocean tides. The water around the trees takes on a reddish color from the natural dye called tannin in their bark. p.630

34. What causes the water around the red mangroves to turn red? Their bark contains a natural dye called tannin, which gets released into the water.

35. A red mangrove tree produces about three hundred seeds a year. By no means do all the seeds survive, but if the conditions are suitable, a lone red mangrove like this one will be surrounded by a forest of young trees in about twenty-five years. p.630

37. The new forest will be a nursery for all kinds of wildlife. Creatures from the tiniest worms to huge birds, like pelicans, will be able to find food, shelter, and safe nesting places among the mangroves’ tangled roots and full branches. p.631

38. Life Cycle of the Mangrove Bright yellow flowers are the first step in the formation of mangrove seeds. More than a thousand flowers bloom on each mature tree in the spring. After a month, the inch-wide blossoms drop off, leaving behind rust brown fruits the size of plums. Each fruit contains a single seed. p.631

39. What is the next step in the life cycle of the red mangrove after the flowers bloom? About a month later, the blossoms drop, leaving behind fruits that each contain one seed.

40. Mangrove seeds sprout and become seedlings.

41. In about two months, something unusual happens. The seed inside each fruit sprouts into a seedling. The root end emerges from the fruit first, followed by the stem. p.632

42. The seeds of most kinds of trees do not begin to sprout until they have fallen off the parent tree and landed on warm, moist earth. If the red mangrove seeds were simply to drop, the salt in the ocean water would keep them from sprouting. p.632

43. How is the sprouting of seeds on red mangroves different from that in most other kinds of trees? On most trees, seeds don’t sprout until they fall off the parent tree and land in the soil. Red mangrove seeds sprout into seedlings while still attached to the parent tree.

44. So the seeds take advantage of their parent tree’s ability to extract nutrients and moisture from the water and soil without taking in any harmful salt. Staying attached to the parent tree, the seeds grow into six-to twelve-inch seedlings that are themselves resistant to salt. p.632

45. What happens to mangrove seeds that enables them to grow in salt water? The seeds stay on the parent tree for a long time. They develop their parent’s ability to take in nutrients and moisture without also taking in the salt.

46. A mangrove seedling takes root in the bottom of shallow ocean water.

47. Development of Mangrove Seedlings These cigar-shaped seedlings, called propagules, have a store of nutrients to keep them alive after they drop into the water. They are also buoyant and can float away, out of the shade of the parent tree, to areas where they will have more room and sunlight to grow. p.633

48. When the seedlings fall, some drop like darts, root end first, into the sandy shore or the shallows. These seedlings put down roots near the parent tree. Others float in a horizontal position until their root ends become waterlogged and heavy. The weight pulls the root ends down, and the seedlings float with their stems upright. p.633

49. They may drift for thousands of miles, living up to a year, before they come to shallow water. Then, their root ends bump along the water’s bottom. This triggers the growth of a network of small roots that eventually catch in the soil. Scientists believe the red mangroves in Florida are the descendants of seedlings that drifted all the way from Africa. p.633

50. What happens to the red mangrove seedlings after they fall from the tree? Some fall straight into the shallow water or the shore and put down roots near the parent tree. Others float horizontally until their roots become heavy and turn down. When they reach shallow water they grow roots into the soil.