PE Basketball Skills

On Monday and Tuesday our teacher took us outside to teach us some skills for basketball such as passing, defending and dribbling. We got into groups of four and lined up at one end of the court and ran to each white line forward and backwards while dribbling. We were told that the ball can’t be dribbled directly in front of you and it had to be at a 45 degree angle from our leg. We also had to dribble the ball to the height of our waist so we have more control over the ball while jogging. It was fun because we got to play piggy in the middle using the skills that we were taught. Next time I could practise more on dribbling so I can have more control over the ball while I am bouncing it and running.

Stoat Report

Introduction
Stoats are a dangerous threat to our endemic and native bird species. They have been introduced to New Zealand and now are making a big impact to our native and endemic birdlife.

Why was it introduced? How did it get here?
Stoats, weasels and ferrets were originally introduced to New Zealand from Europe in 1880 to control the rabbit population. Rabbits were shipped to New Zealand from Australia in 1830 for food and for sport. By 1890 the population of rabbits grew dangerously and they started to destroy land. They would scratch the grass off the hillside of hills until it was bare soil. With no grass to hold the soil in place and covered in rabbit burrows the hillsides were damaged from the wind and rain. The stoats, weasel and ferrets job was to kill the rabbits to keep the rabbit population in balance but now they have become a pest to New Zealand by killing our native and endemic birds.

Classification
A stoat is classified as a mammal that is closely related to the weasel and ferret.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sarcopterygii
Order: Carnivora
Family: Mustelidae
Genus: Mustela
Species: Mustela erminea

Animal Name
The stoat is known as a short tailed weasel or ermine. The scientific name for the stoat is Mustela erminea. A male stoat can be named a dog, hob or jack and a female can be called a jill. A baby stoats can be called a kitten or a kit. A group of stoats can either be called a gang or pack.

Anatomy/Appearance
Stoats have a long slender body with four short legs and a long tail. They have reddish - brown fur on their back, a creamy white colored underbelly and a long tail with a dark black tip. An adult male stoat can grow up 390 mm (39 cm) and can weigh up to 260 grams.







Locomotion
Stoats are very fast moving mammals and can reach a speed of up to 20 km per hour. They extend their legs to reach further distances while capturing their prey. They arch their back while they are in the air running to gain more speed. Their speed helps them for catching prey but is vulnerable against traps.

Diet
Stoats are carnivores which means they only eat meat. Their main prey are mice, rats, possums, hares and insects such as weta. They also eat New Zealand's birds that live on ground in the forest. Stoats will jump on their prey and bite their prey on the back of their skull or their neck. Stoats are one of the top predators in the food web.

Habitat and Range
Stoats prefer to live in areas where they can find prey to eat. They can be found on beaches, in remote forests and in mountains regions. In New Zealand they can be found in forests where they can find prey to eat. Stoats can be found in Britain and Southern Europe. The are known to be the most widespread mustelid.

Behaviour
In winter the stoats fur turns white and only the tip of the tail stays the same color. Stoats like to burrow under thick layers of grass where they can hide and stalk their prey. The stoat is nocturnal which means they are mostly active at night. At night they follow their prey into their burrow and kill them.

Defence/Offence
Stoats kill their prey by biting the back of their prey’s skull or neck until it dies. The stoat defends itself by biting their prey and holding on firmly. They try to wrap their body around their prey while still holding on to them with their teeth.

Conclusion
Stoats were introduced to New Zealand to kill rabbits but now they are killing our endemic and native birds. But there are now community's placing traps in the forest to kill these pests that harm our endemic and native birdlife.




A couple of weeks ago in Te Ngahere we wrote informational reports about a pest of our choice. We were learning how to use the correct structure for an information report. In each paragraph of the report we had to write about a different topic of the animal that we were researching. The paragraphs we had to write were the why it is introduced, classification, animal name, anatomy/appearance, locomotion, diet, habitat and range, behaviour, defence/offence and conclusion. I enjoyed researching about the stoat and next time I could use more topic sentences in my informational report.