Set 4.3 - Valley of the smelly

Set 4.3 - Valley of the smelly

By Adam Sturtevant

Open Ended

A valley is...

A valley is a landform between hills or mountains. It is longer than it is wide. Valleys can be formed by in a few ways. Rivers or glaciers can erode the landscape - like a fjord or canyon - to create valleys. They can also be created by tectonic plates shifting away from each other.

​valley

Fill in the Blanks

A waterfall occurs when water from a river or other source drops over a rocky ledge. Waterfalls are formed by erosion but also cause erosion themselves. Waterfalls can be small or very big - like Niagra Falls or Angel Falls - the worlds tallest waterfall.

waterfall

Poll

Have you ever seen a waterfall in real life?

• Yes, in Indonesia

• Yes, overseas

• No never

• Each night I dream of waterfalls and then I wake up because I need to pee

Multiple Select

What might we find in a marsh? (choose two)

• marshmallows

• lots of trees

• grasses and other vegetation

• water and mud

A marsh is a type of wetland. Unlike swamps, marshes don't have a lot of trees. They do have lots of grasses and other shorter vegetation - that's a fancy word for plants. Marshes are often found near river mouths or lake edges. Marshes are often found in deltas. The plants stick to the mud and allow the water to go in different directions.

marsh

Open Ended

What kind of animals might live in a marsh? Explain.

Multiple Choice

What kind of water would we find in a lagoon?

• fresh

• salty

• minty

• chocolatey

A lagoon is an area of shallow and quiet water - that is near the ocean but also protected from it by a barrier. This barrier can be sandbars, coral reefs. Coral reef atolls are generally round but ones protected by stretches of sandbars are often long.

lagoon

Fill in the Blanks

A cape is a high point of land that extends into a river, lake, or ocean. They are similar to peninsulas but are different in that they stick out into the water rather than go a long way like a peninsula. Think of them as a stubby thumb. We saw a cape when we looked at Hinchinbrook Island last week. Do you remember? Let's look at an example of the differences between the two.

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cape

cape

​A peninsula is connected to the land with a narrower section. A cape is connected with a larger, thicker section of land. You can see the physical differences here in this picture.

Open Ended

What is the name of the cape on Hinchinbrook Island?

Fill in the Blanks

Glaciers begin to form when snow remains in the same area year-round, where enough snow accumulates to transform into ice. Each year, new layers of snow bury and compress the previous layers. You will find glaciers mostly in Canada, Greenland and Antarctica. Due to global warming, some glaciers are beginning to shift and melt. This is a huge problem because the sea level rises and the warmer air and ocean temperatures create more storms. Coastal areas also become more eroded.

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glacier

Multiple Choice

A butte is...

• A fancy butt..haha

• A place for cowboys to rest

• A steep-sided tower of rock

• Butter with out the "r"

Buttes are tall, flat-topped, steep-sided towers of rock. Buttes were created through the process of erosion, the gradual wearing away of earth by water, wind, and ice. Buttes were once part of flat, elevated areas of land known as mesas or plateaus. Buttes are created as streams slowly cut through a mesa or plateau. This process happened millions of years ago.

butte

Open Ended

What would you name your horse if you were a cowgirl/cowboy?

Fill in the Blanks

An atoll is a ring-shaped coral reef, island, or series of islets. An atoll surrounds a body of water called a lagoon. Sometimes, atolls and lagoons protect a central island. They look amazing! Did you know that there is a place called the Bikini Atoll? Spongebob's home is inspired by the name. It is also famous because nuclear bombs were tested there. That's kind of sad.

atoll

Multiple Select

A reef is a ridge of material just below the surface of the ocean. It can be made of... (choose several answers)

• coral

• rocks

• oyster beds or other shellfish

• sunken ships

Coral reefs can be found all over the world! However, most coral reefs grow in shallow, clean ocean waters on either side of the Equator, because they need sunlight and warm temperatures all year to survive. Some famous coral reefs include the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Amazon Reef in Brazil and French Guiana, the Tubbataha Reef in the Philippines and the Miami Terrace Reef in the United States. Reefs aren't always made of coral. They can be made of rocks, shellfish beds or even sunken ships! Humans also make artificial reefs. This is done for a number of reasons. It can protect a coastline from waves and erosion, make it great for surfers, or to encourage aquatic plants and animals to make their home there.

reef

Multiple Choice

This lovely weird shape is...

• the end of the world

• a delta

• my new haircut

• a weird tree

Deltas are wetlands that form as rivers empty their water and sediment into another body of water, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river moves more slowly as it nears its mouth, or end. This causes sediment, solid material carried downstream by currents,

to fall to the river bottom. The sediment makes new channels - the finger branch things you see in the pictures. Deltas are wetlands and homes to many animals. Not all rivers form deltas. For a delta to form, the flow of a river must be slow and steady enough for the heavy mud and sediment to sink and form new channels.

delta