March 18th, 2016

Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children

Post Number 57

Ducks on the Loose

 

 
Hello Everyone

 

 

Once a very strange thing happened; it seems funny, but for the people it happened to, it probably wasn’t very funny at all.

 

Let me tell you the story. lt is a true story.

 

What happened was this…

 

A cargo ship left China in 1992.

 

Twenty-nine thousand little, plastic, yellow ducks, blue turtles and green frogs on board fell off the ship into the sea in a January storm. The cardboard boxes they were packed in fell apart in the water and the toys escaped.

 

These toys floated off as if the Pacific Ocean was one great big bath tub. About ten thousand of them drifted north and about nineteen thousand of them floated south.

 

Ten months later, some of them started washing up on the shores of Alaska.

 

A lot of them spent three years going round in a large circle in the Pacific. Some of them washed up in Hawaii and North America.

 

Then the ducks began to float off around the world – literally.

 

Some of them washed up on the shores of Australia and South America.

 

Some of them got stuck in Arctic ice flows, moved east and then floated off into the sea again as the ice they were trapped in began to melt. They were now in the Atlantic Ocean.

 

They had travelled thousands and thousands of miles and started to wash up on the beaches of the eastern Canada and the United States in 2000.

 

Then they started to travel eastwards.

 

ln 2003 they reached Britain and Europe. By this time they had faded to a white colour from being in the sun for so long, but they were still able to float.

 

This story was very interesting to scientists because it gave them information about how the currents and tides in the oceans worked. The ducks were more likely to be reported to them than the normal floats that they used.

 

Because it was so unusual to see a bath duck on the sea, they attracted attention.

 

 

Bill and Bob often go down to the beach and sometimes they look to see if they can spot any of these ducks.

 

They haven’t found one so far, but you can watch out for them if you like the next time you go down to a beach; wherever you are in the world.

 

Have you ever seen anything strange floating in the sea?

 

 

Bye bye everyone – don’t forget to subscribe to my blog!

 

Love and kisses

 

 

Salty Sam

www.christina-sinclair.com

 

 

 

Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week

 

Bill: What do you call a crate of ducks?

 

Bob: l don’t know. What do you call a crate of ducks?

 

Bill: A box of quackers!

 

 
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.

Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com

 

Picture Gallery

 

The Hawaiian Islands are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean

 

 The Names of the Oceans of the world

(The Arctic Ocean is at the top of the world)

 

 The ocean currents that the ducks were caught up in

 

 And this seven-storey-high rubber duck is a work of art made by Florentijn Hofman

It has been sited on the waterways of many major cities across the globe

 

 These little ducks were the only ones Bill and Bob could find!  

 

      THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK

 

It has been quite foggy here in the mornings since I last wrote to you and I have had to put my fog horn on to warn ships about the rocks under my lighthouse a couple of times.

Luckily the Sun came out later in the day.

 

 

Nobody came out to visit me all week and it wasn’t until yesterday I saw Bill and Bob. 

They were telling me about what they did last weekend.

They went on a long journey to visit their cousins and made up a new game to play in the car so that they wouldn’t get bored. It is called Animal Alphabet.

They thought that you would like to know about it too.

 

 

This is what you have to do…

You have to go through the alphabet and think of an animal whose name begins with each letter. And you can make up proper names for them as well if you like to make it funnier.

For example Andy the Aardvark, Bertie the Bat…

 

 

If you like, you can take it in turns to score points – put a limit on your thinking time though.

 

 

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Quick Quiz

 

What do these phrases mean?

 

1. to get/have a feather in your cap
2. to feather your own nest
3. make the feathers fly
4. to ruffle someone’s feathers
5. you could have knocked me down with a feather
6. fine feathers make fine birds
7. to be spitting feathers 

 

 

BLOW MY FOGHORN!!!

 

PLUS

 
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lt’s the Weekend!

 

 

HOW TO MAKE A DOODLE STlTCHlNG PlCTURE

 
This has got to be the easiest embroidery stitch ever! It is very good for beginners.

 

 

Basically, you just draw a picture on some fabric and sew a running stitch or back stitch along the lines. But you can make your picture more interesting by adding other stitches like satin stitch and lazy daisy stitch. Work your stitches on fabric held tightly in a frame – but don’t leave it in a frame overnight or longer otherwise the fabric will get marked.

There are fen tip pens that you can buy that write on fabric, but with some or them the ink fades overnight, so you need to get your picture done in one day.

You can use transfers which disappear when they are washed and of course these will last longer.

Otherwise, you can draw lightly with a sharp pencil and these lines should get covered with coloured threads or silks, as long as they are thin enough, as you sew on top of them.

You can use doodle stitching to decorate items of clothing or house hold linens or you can make a picture to go in a frame.

The more complicated the picture the more interesting it is. You can draw lots of doodles or you can organise your picture into a scene.

Take your inspiration from a picture that you like or just use your imagination.

 

 

Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.

It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.

Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.

©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015

 

 

ANSWERS TO LAST WEEK’S WORDSEARCH

 

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 News Desk Game

 

These words might help you – see if you can remember them…

 

Aardvark – a South African ant eater

Ibex – a mountain goat

Jack-daw – a crow

Nautilus – a sea creature

Quail – like a partridge

Urchin – a sea creature

Viper – a poisonous snake

Yak –a wild ox

 

An aardvark

 

 

 A quail

 

 

 

Quick Quiz Answers

 

1. to get/have a feather in your cap –
2. to feather your own nest –
3. make the feathers fly –
4. to ruffle someone’s feathers –
5. you could have knocked me down with a feather –
6. fine feathers make fine birds –
7. to be spitting feathers

 

1. something you achieve that is something to be proud of
2. to make money for yourself when you are supposed to be in charge of something for other people
3. to attack suddenly
4. to upset someone
5. l was astonished
6. people often look attractive when they are wearing nice clothes
7. to be very thirsty or very angry

 

 
 

For an Embroidery Stitches Chart

Check out Blog Post 3

 

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Thank You!