Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 597
Desertification
Hello Everyone
At this time of year, many people are thinking about going on their summer holidays – and they hope that the weather will be nice and sunny for them.
The children at the Rocky Bay Primary School have been working hard all year, and they are looking forward to their summer break too.
One of the projects Miss Pringle’s class set up this year was to grow some trees to be planted out onto local farmland in a couple of year’s time.
Their little forest of pots in the corner of the playground just grew and grew – and now it is a very large square of seedlings that are growing ever bigger.
Miss Pringle and Mr Grumps the school caretaker have promised the children that they will pop in from time to time to water their little trees over the summer holidays.
After all, if they dry out and die, all their hard work will be wasted!
The seedlings are only in quite small posts at the moment – and they don’t hold too much water.
Do you know what the title of the blog post means?
Have a look at the light brown patches on the world map.
These patches represent areas that have turned to desert or are turning into desert. lt is a huge area, isn’t it?
The process of land turning into desert is called desertification.
A huge percentage of the world’s surface is in danger of desertification – barren desert is dry land where hardly anything lives. The land there is not like beach sand – it is ground that can sustain plants.
There are people planting trees on the outskirts of deserts in places like Australia and Asia and they keep planting more trees to extend the forest into the desert.
They observe that the moisture level around the trees grows, and the whole atmosphere of the region begins to change. lt is a very successful and rewarding process.
Trees can help bind soil together and help make sure that it does not get washed away in flash floods.
Plants need water to live.
Countries like Algeria and Mauritania in North Africa are building desalination plants along their coastline to turn seawater into fresh water – millions of gallons a day. This water can be piped into the Sahara Desert to irrigate it. Then farmland or land that can sustain forests can be created. This land can produce food and other products that can be sold.
The heat dome that made Europe so hot this summer was created because of the heat coming from the Sahara Desert. It is the largest hot desert in the world.
Land that looks like desert can very often become lush grassland if it has enough water. But when it rains, that water needs to stay in the ground, not just run off it!
Scientists have discovered that keeping animals on this kind of land is very good for it. They trample down the grass and it forms a kind of mat that holds water when it rains.
The trampled, matted grass keeps the water from washing away and gives it time to soak into the soil revitalizing all plants that live in the area – grass, trees, bushes, shrubs and flowers.
Keeping domesticated animals like cattle on land that is turning into desert mimics nature – that means if wild animals are not trampling down the grass and creating a terrain that will hold water; then farm animals can do it instead.
Local people can be taught how to manage livestock, and the land and they can then make a sustainable living.
The animals manure the ground too which improves soil quality.
Lines of trees can help to stop soil erosion by becoming wind barriers.
They can create shade for people and animals and sometimes even food for people or fodder for the animals.
The planet needs more trees!
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 is the best thing to take with you when you go into the desert?
Bob: l don’t know. What is the best thing to take with you when you go into the desert?
Bill: A thirst aid kit!
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
Soil erosion
Desertification can be reversed
Tree planting
(trees.org)
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
One afternoon this week, the children in Miss Pringle’s class at the Rocky Bay Primary School were given some drawing to do.
Miss Pringle asked them to draw a picture of all the most important things in their life.
The children drew pictures of their family, pets, favourite toys and the things they liked to do like playing on their swing and bouncing on their trampoline in the garden.
The children’s pictures all looked pretty similar.
Then after the afternoon break, Miss Pringle asked the children to paint a picture of how they felt. They did not have to paint shapes or objects but an expression of their feelings and emotions.
They were going to paint what is called an abstract painting.
When they were finished the children’s pictures all looked very different.
Can you paint an abstract picture?
By an artist called Kandinsky
*********************
*********************
Quick Quiz
Do you know what these words mean?
- infallible
- iris
- insomnia
- impinge
- immortal
- idle
- inadequate
- industrious
- intrude
- itinerary
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE LEMONADE
This is a good recipe for a hot day.
First, you need to make a simple syrup to sweeten your lemonade.
Put ½cup of sugar and ½cup of water into a saucepan and heat so that the sugar can dissolve. You do not want the sugar to remain gritty.
If you want a healthier alternative, you can use ½cup honey instead of the sugar.
Then leave your syrup to cool.
Roll six lemons around on a flat surface to make them juicier.
Cut them in half and squeeze the juice out of them using a lemon squeezer.
You will need 1 cup of lemon juice.
Add 4 cups of water to dilute your juice ready for drinking.
To this mixture you can add 1 cup of orange juice to give extra flavour.
Or instead of using plain water, you could steep a tea bag in the water for 20 minutes to add extra flavour – try rosehip or hibiscus tea bags.
Or you could alternatively add herbs to flavour your simple syrup before you add it to your lemon juice – try adding two or three sprigs of mint or thyme whilst the syrup is warm.
Or you can add a sprinkle of ginger to your lemonade and mix it in.
Remember to strain any mixtures that are full of pips or herbs so that you end up with a clear drink!
Add ice – there are ice cube ideas on Blog Post 535.
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
Quick Quiz Answers
- infallible – can’t fail
- iris – the coloured part of your eye
- insomnia – can’t sleep
- impinge – push in on
- immortal – live forever
- idle – lazy/not working at the moment
- inadequate – not enough
- industrious – hard-working
- intrude – push in where something or someone is not wanted
- itinerary – a plan for travelling
