LIfe cycle of the cicada

The Life Cycle of a Cicada – By Dhillon and dictated to Chris

The male cicada has two wings to hide its sound information from the female. The male cicada has a long tail and likes to sing. The song it is singing is “will you mate with me?” Everyone knows that the male cicada wants to mate.

Female cicadas are mostly green, have a short tail and do not sing.  The female chooses whether she wants to mate with the cicada. If the female wants to mate the male, the male will stop singing and she will let the male stroke the ends of her wings. The longer the male mates with the female the more eggs the female will lay. If they want to lay about 700 eggs they would need to mate for about 10 minutes.  Cicada eggs take about 60 to 120 days to hatch.

In Spring time the Nymphs (the children) want to find some roots to eat. They have beaks like tubes that help them pierce the roots of trees.  They have large front legs for digging. They need to keep warm because they will die in the cold. The nymph stays alive underground for 4 or 5 years.  The nymphs are just like rabbits, they burrow out of their tunnel to the surface.  They come out at night when it is warm and when the birds are asleep.

The next batch of memorable times

I was about two years old and helping Mum with the baking, when crash, bang I’m falling. When will it all end?  I feel a sudden pain in my head. I hit the ground. I touch the salt water that’s falling down my cheeks.

Mum sits me down in a chair and explains it all while dabbing my head with a wet cloth before the blood can pour all over me. “You were getting a spoon for me when you lost your balance. As you fell, you sliced the top of your head on the corner of the cutlery tray,” she says.

I can see Dad walking up the driveway. He had been hunting.  He sees me sitting in the chair looking miserable and asks what happened. Mum explains all over again.

After that they hurriedly drove me to hospital. I had to get stitches. Eight years later and I can still remember it very, very clearly.

By Olive

Brmmm, brmmm. “How do I turn it off?” I scream.

This is the day I started Dad’s van. I was sitting in the driver’s seat and Dad was watching me from the garden. Some one had left the key in the ignition.  I had my foot on the accelerator.  I thought I would pretend to turn the key on.

 It switched right around! “Oh no!” I had fiddled with the gears. The van was slowly moving forward. I was frozen, my foot on the accelerator. “Dad, help me!” I screamed.

“Turn it off before you go off the edge,” yelled Dad. If I didn’t turn it off now, I would be in the garden and very badly hurt.  “What do I do?” At the last minute, I managed to turn the key off.

 One of Dad’s work friends was over. I was very embarrassed. When I stopped, I found the brake. I put my foot on it.   Dad came and moved the gear back into neutral. Then he said, “Five is too young to drive. NO more. OUT.”

 So sadly I was banned from playing in the van.  

By Madeline 

Biscuit

Skimming through the water, 70 miles an hour, well maybe an exaggeration, but anyway Cilla and I fly across the estuary of beautiful Ligar Bay.

The biscuit was coming up to a wave. As Bruce turned the corner, we hit the wave with a thud. I gripped tightly on the handles; I glanced over to see Cilla squinting to protect her eyes from the wicked sea spray that pierced our bare faces. We gave Bruce the stop signal and he slowed down. The biscuit drifted towards the boat as Izzy pulled the rope that was tightly attached to the front. We clung on to the edge of the boat and climbed on.

Later, after a long boat ride, we beached at a beautiful cove and had a day of beach paradise, swimming, diving, finding jellyfish and floating out to an island in the middle of the cove. As we set off back home, we glanced to our left and saw the destroyed road to Totaranui.

On the way we stopped to have a look at a seal that was swimming around the boat. We slowly started moving forwards then we heard a yell from the front of the boat. It was Izzy. And we all saw the eight small Hectors dolphins.

Izzy and I swam with them for a while but soon they swam away. Then we pulled up to the wharf. We ended the day with nice ice mocha at the espresso boat and that was my most memorable day.                                                     By Emma

My Mum’s Mum, Savta* was in New Zealand and I was four.  One day, Savta and I were going to Cable Bay. I wanted to sit in the front seat but luckily Savta said no.  As we turned in off the highway that’s when it all went wrong. A truck came round the corner.  BANG!  

The truck hit the car and we went spinning into the ditch. The front window was smashed. I wanted to scream but no sound came out of my mouth. Just then a fire truck came round the corner, followed by an ambulance and police car. A fire man got me out of the car and then they tried to get my Savta out but she was stuck so they had to use a chain saw.  

“Zoe,” I heard my Mum yell.  I ran to her. Rachel had seen the accident and had gone to get Mum from home.

 On the way to the hospital the lady in the ambulance gave me cake and juice. When we got there, the lady who gave me cake and juice said that my nana had to stay in the hospital because the glass from the front window went into her.

A man took me and Mum to get me checked over and to see if I had any glass in my chest but I just had a little cut. I still have a very, very faint scar.

It was my most scary experience and I hope it never happens again.     

By Zoe

*Savta is Hebrew for Grandma or Nana.  It is pronounced Safta.