Return Ticket, Please!
by David Hill

The first person ever to stand on the moon was Neil Armstrong on 20 July 1969.
As he stepped out of his spacecraft, he said, "That's one small step for a man; one 
giant leap for mankind." 
What would you say if you were the first person ever to step onto another planet?
The United States, working with other countries, is planning a new mission to Mars 
by the year 2020.  And this time, there'll be people on board.
Spacecraft without crews have been landing on Mars since the 1970s.  In 1997, the 
spacecraft Pathfinder landed on Mars, and a small, six-wheeled robot called Sojourner 
trundled around, testing rocks and measuring the wind speed.  
A trip to Mars takes a long time.  The astronauts who walked on the moon took three 
days to get there, travelling at 6000 km/h in their Apollo spacecraft.  At the same speed, it 
would take them twenty months to reach Mars.  Even with today's more powerful rockets, it 
could take at least seven months to reach Mars. 

Why Mars?
You might have expected Venus to be the first planet people would visit.  After all, it's 30 
million kilometres closer to earth than Mars.
But the surface temperature on Venus is 187°C – hot enough to melt lead.  The 
clouds drizzle acid.  Winds tear overhead at nearly 400 km/h, and the air pressure would 
crush a human body.  Nobody seems very keen to go for a walk on Venus!
Mars is the only planet, apart from Earth, on which people might be able to survive.
There does not seem to be any water on Mars, though scientists think there may once 
have been water there.  
Visitors to Mars probably won't find any life, though primitive life may have existed 
there once.  Rocks blasted from the surface of Mars by meteorites have drifted through space 
and ended up on Earth.  These rocks seem to contain dead bacteria.  But life could not exist 
on Mars without water.  In future, spacecraft may test to see whether there is still any water 
beneath the dry surface of the planet.

More Than a  Year in Space?
How would you like to spend fourteen months shut up with the same three or four people in 
an area the size of a small room?  Imagine if they snored!  What if you didn't like each other?  
Astronauts will have to be very carefully chosen.
Carrying supplies for such a long trip means there'll be very little space for scientific 
equipment – or for scientists!  
It might be possible to grow some fresh vegetables on the way.  (One problem is that 
with zero gravity on a spacecraft, the plants' roots won't know which way is down!)  
Washing water will be recycled, and sweat will be gathered and processed for drinking 
water.

It's a Long Way Away
Radio messages travel at the speed of light.  But Mars is so far away that it will take 
messages four minutes and twenty seconds to reach us.  If an astronaut asks people on Earth, 
"Help!  Where's the fire extinguisher?", it will be nearly nine minutes before they get a reply.
Spacecrafts have more than 2 million working parts.  If a spacecraft develops engine 
trouble halfway to Mars, the astronauts can't call for a tow truck.  Everything will have to 
work as perfectly as possible.

Problems on Mars
If a spacecraft with people on it does arrive on Mars, there will be a few problems to solve.
People could not breathe the air on Mars.  There is no oxygen, only thin carbon 
dioxide.
Mars is also a very cold planet.  Even in summer, the temperature seldom reaches 
5°C.  At night, the temperature drops to minus 140°C. 
When astronauts finally arrive on Mars, they might not be able to see very much.  On 
Mars, dust storms can last for months, filling the sky with pink dust.

A trip to Mars hardly sounds like the ideal holiday!  But people have always wanted 
to discover new places.  And who wants to sit around at home all the time?
So – return ticket to Mars, anyone?

Happy Birthday, World!
by Te Ròpù Ngaio, Petone Central School

Imagine that the millennium celebrations are a huge 2000th birthday party for Planet Earth.
The children of Te Ròpù Ngaio at Petone Central School had some great ideas for a birthday present. 

I think the world needs a big cake.  It would be shaped like the world, and it would be for the poor.
Rachel Singh

The new millennium is coming.  If Earth could have one wish, it would probably wish for peace and harmony forever.
Jordan Dwight

For the new millennium, I wish that the world could have robots for servants.
Adrian

I wish money could grow on trees so poor people could just go outside and pick as much as they wanted.
Ani Morunga

I wish the world had skateboards that flew and bikes that could go on land and sea and could fly.
Patrick McDonald

I think the world needs no more wars and violence.  We also need cleaner pavements and no more stealing.  I think in the new 
millennium, people will respect each other.
Amir

I would give cars the power to drive themselves.  You would tell a box where you wanted to go, and the car would drive you 
there.
Emily Rice

I think that in the new millennium, mushrooms should be banned for ever and no one should be forced to eat things they don't 
like.
Alex Shulamith

When the millennium comes I wish that they would show all the cartoon episodes that have ever been made.
Richard Te Aonui

If Earth could have one present, it would be … to have no pollution as well as to have no poverty.
Matthew Nydom

Artists at Work
by Lee Wadds and the Students of Room 1, Halfmoon Bay School

Murray Grimsdale has been illustrating for the School Journal for over XX years.  One day recently, he visited Halfmoon Bay 
School in Stewart Island.

It's not every day that a famous artist visits your classroom, shows you how to paint, and paints your portrait while he's there.
Murray Grimsdale visited our class recently.  He brought some of his paintings of Stewart Island and also showed us 
some of the art work he has done for the School Journal.
Then he showed us an easy way to draw a face.  "Just imagine it's a hot cross bun," he said.  
First he drew a big circle on a piece of paper and painted a cross on it.  "That's where the eyes, nose, and mouth will 
go," he said.
We all had a go at drawing each other's faces.
Then Murray Grimsdale showed us how to draw action figures.  He told us to draw each part of the arms and legs as a 
cylinder.  "Start off with pale colours," he suggested.  "Then you can easily change it later if you're not happy with it."
We were only allowed the three primary colours – red, yellow, and blue.  We could use these to mix any colours we 
wanted.  
"I always keep the paper I mix colours on in case I want to mix that colour again," said Murray Grimsdale.
He chose two children to sit for a five-minute portrait.  Rachel and Tai thought their pictures were a very good likeness – 
especially considering that they'd been painted in just five minutes!

Here are some of Murray Grimsdale's illustrations that have been published in the School Journal.  See if you can find 
any more.  

photographs by Lee Wadds


"The Planet of Trickaree" Part 1 Number 2, 1984
"Eeling" Part 2 Number 4, 1990
"The Planet of Trickaree" Part 1 Number 2, 1984
"Whai's Kiwi" Part 2 Number 3, 1989
"Breadstrike" Part 2 Number 4, 1987
"Ghost" Part 2 Number 1993
"Eeling" Part 2 Number 4, 1990

The Part 2 School Journal designer asked Murray Grimsdale how he goes about illustrating a story or poem for the Journal.
Margaret:  	What do you do first?
Murray:  	I read the text over and over again.  Then I do some rough pencil sketches.  I go to the library 
to look for pictures that might help me.  I also have drawers full of newspaper cuttings and 
lots of sketchbooks full of drawings.
Margaret:	How do you work out how the pictures will fit on the page?
Murray:	I sketch the pictures in the spaces around the text on the layout that you send me.   
	For the rough sketches, I use black and white acrylic paint.  Then I use a light table (a glass-
topped desk with a light inside) to trace the images, with a pencil, onto good-quality paper.  
	I finish the pictures using coloured pencils or acrylic or watercolour paint – or a combination 
of these.
	Sometimes I keep redoing the pictures until I'm happy with them.

Candlenut Trees
by Mona Matepi

Tuitui (candlenut trees) used to be very important in the Cook Islands.  They were introduced 
by our ancestors long ago and were used for making candles.
People used to collect the nuts from the tuitui trees and crack open their outer shells.  
There are hard balls of wax inside, each about the size of a walnut.  You can thread these onto 
the dried rib of a coconut frond.  One rib can take up to about ten of these small wax balls.  
And that makes an excellent candle.
It didn't take long for a family to make enough candles to last a whole week.  They 
only had to go inland to the mid-level forests on the mountainsides and gather enough nuts.
When Grandma and Grandpa were children, they used to do their homework by 
candlenut light.  One candle was enough to light up a room.  The candles burnt slowly, 
sending up thin wisps of black smoke towards the ceiling.  Homework had to be finished 
before the candle burnt down.  Otherwise you'd have to do it in the morning – after you'd fed 
the pigs!
Now and then, we still follow the tracks up into the forest to look for tuitui.  But now 
we do it just for fun.  Everyone in the family joins in to help make candles.  And then, for the 
rest of the week, we do our homework by candlelight, pretending we are Grandma and 
Grandpa when they were still going to school.

photographs by Jill MacGregor


Make a Pendant
by Megan Pickett

Salt dough is easy to make, and you can use it to make yourself some great jewellery – or even a "greenstone" taonga.

Making Salt Dough

You will need:

1 cup salt
2 cups flour
4 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 tablespoons cooking oil
2 cups water
food colouring (if you want to make coloured dough)

Method
Do this with an adult to help you.
1.	Mix all the ingredients in a large saucepan.  Stir the mixture well until there are no lumps.
2.	Turn on a stove element to medium heat.
3.	Put the saucepan on the element and keep stirring until the mixture is stiff and has formed into a lump of dough.
4.	When the dough has cooled down, it's ready to use.  It can be stored in a plastic bag in the fridge till you are ready to use 
it.

How to Dry Salt Dough
Objects made from salt dough can be dried in the sun or in the oven.  
The oven temperature should be about 105 degrees Celsius.  Drying in the oven will take about 1 hour on each side, 
depending on how big the object is.

How to Colour Salt Dough
You can add food colouring to the salt dough before you mix it up.  
Otherwise you can use paint or felt-tip pens to decorate your work.  
After you have coloured your object, brush it with three coats of clear nail polish to help it last.  This will also make it 
shiny.

You can use the dough to make buttons, tiles, pendants, brooches, models, or mobiles.

This is how we made our taonga.  

•	We rolled the dough between our hands.
•	Then we squashed it down so it was about 1 centimetre thick.
•	We cut out the shape of our pendants with a blunt knife and smoothed out the edges.
•	We made a hole in the top of each one with a knitting needle to thread the string through.
•	Then we cooked them in the oven till they were hard.  We painted them green to look like pounamu.  Then we varnished 
them.  

Some Traditional Shapes to Choose
Hei Matau
A pendant in the shape of a fish hook

Koropepe
A spiral-shaped pendant

Kuru
A straight pendant, sometimes worn in the ear

When your taonga is finished, you can thread a string through it and give it to a friend.
Give It a Try 
by Jan Trafford

Every year, 11 000 kids all round New Zealand join in the Kiwi Kids Tryathlon.  Teams of runners, cyclists, and swimmers take 
part in the event – and everyone's a winner!

Brrrring-brrrring!  Brrrring-brrrring!  Brrrring-brrrring!  
"Hello?"
"Hi, Danielle.  It's Sephrah.  You still a starter for the Tryathlon?"
"Yeah – what about you?"
"Sure.  And I've just rung Jasmine.  She'll be the runner."
"OK.  I'll ride my bike."
"I'll do the swimming, then.  When shall we start training?"
"How about NOW?"

It's three weeks till the big day.  The teams have to run 2 kilometres, swim 200 metres, and bike 8 kilometres.  
Danielle trains in the school pool, Sephrah rides her bike on the dirt track, and Jasmine runs alongside.  At first they 
have to keep stopping for a rest, but each day they feel a bit fitter.  After a couple of weeks, they hardly have to stop for rests at 
all.
On the day of the Tryathlon, everyone gets to the park in plenty of time.  Eight hundred kids all wearing the same blue 
T-shirts!  The biggest problem is how to find each other in the crowd!
Everyone listens as the marshalls explain what to do and where to go.  That's Erin Baker with the microphone.  
Swimmers go down to the beach.  Cyclists and runners take their places.  At last, it's time for the tryathlon to START!
First, the swim.  Everyone lines up along the beach.
"GO!"
The swimmers splash into the water.  
"GO, DANIELLE!"
They swim out to the big red buoy, along to another buoy, and back in to the beach again.  Danielle races out of the 
water and looks for Sephrah.  She has to tag her so that Seph can start biking.  There she is!  
"GO FOR IT, SEPH!"
Seph speeds off down the course and out onto the road.  Eight kilometres seems a long way, but she's feeling fit.  All 
that training is paying off!
Back onto the grass again, and it's Jasmine's turn.  Everyone's shouting and clapping.  "GO, JASMINE!"  
Jasmine runs her hardest.  One lap to go … half a lap …  She can hear the others cheering her on.  The finishing line is 
just up ahead … and, yes!  She's done it!
Everyone who finishes the course gets a medal, a certificate, and a sports drink.  They've earned it!  Jasmine's mum 
hands out chocolate bars as well.  
"We'll do this again next year," everyone agrees.

photographs by Ian Trafford
Escape Artist Clyde
by Philippa Werry

MISSING
One oriental small-clawed otter
Age: 1 year 
Colour: grey-brown
Favourite food: fish
Last seen: in the otter enclosure at Wellington Zoo
May answer to the name of: Clyde

Clyde the otter spent the first year of his life with his family at Auckland Zoo.  Then he was moved to join Wellington Zoo's 
otter, Bonnie.  The zookeepers hoped that the two otters might start a family together.
But only two days after he arrived, Clyde went missing.  He had dug his way under one of the walls around the otter 
enclosure, and he was nowhere to be seen.  
The zoo staff set up cages inside the zoo, with plates of Clyde's favourite fish in them, and they leaned a ramp up 
against the outside of the otter enclosure so that he could get back in if he wanted to.
One day went by – two days – and still there was no sign of Clyde.  Where could he be?
At last someone saw Clyde – nowhere inside the zoo, not even close by the zoo, but a whole kilometre away at a house 
in Adelaide Road, Newtown.  No one knew how Clyde had found his way there without being spotted, but there he was.
The people who lived in the house, Blake and Mike, could hardly believe their eyes.  But they'd read about Clyde in the 
newspapers, and they called the zoo straight away.  By now, Clyde was hiding in an out-of-reach hole in the outside laundry.  
The zookeepers arrived and set up some more traps to try to catch him.
But Clyde is a pretty smart otter.  Twice he managed to get the fish out of a trap without being caught.  He stayed in the 
laundry for three days, and Blake and Mike didn't dare use their washing machine in case they scared him.
Five days after he'd escaped, Clyde's days on the run came to an end when he was finally caught in one of the traps.  
Even then, he didn't go quietly.  When the zookeepers arrived to take him back to the zoo, Clyde bit one of them on the 
finger, through the bars of the cage.  Those signs around the otter enclosure are right – these animals bite!
It was no good putting Clyde back in his old home – he'd only dig his way out again.  So he and Bonnie were put into 
the zoo hospital.  There was no chance of their escaping from there, but it wasn't a very nice place to stay in for long.  Clyde 
wasn't at all happy there.  He hid away on a little ledge inside and only dashed out to snatch something to eat at feeding time.
Meanwhile, the zoo staff were working hard to make the otter enclosure more secure.  They covered the railings with 
transparent panels to stop the otters from climbing out, and put a concrete barrier underground to stop them digging their way 
out. Then Bonnie and Clyde went home again.
Their enclosure had rocks to climb and pools and waterfalls to dive into.  But a month after his first escape, Clyde was 
out again.  The gibbons raised the alarm by shrieking and howling.  Someone who was working near the monkey island looked 
over and spotted Clyde in the moat. 
Once more the zookeepers came hurrying to recapture Clyde.  They could keep track of him by following the bubbles he 
made in the water.  
Nobody knew how Clyde had escaped – perhaps he'd climbed a tree to help him jump over the fence.  This time he was 
only out for an hour, but it was clear that he couldn't go back to his enclosure.  So – back he went to the hospital again.
Poor Clyde.  It seemed that he wasn't happy at Wellington Zoo, even though he and Bonnie were getting on well 
together.  The keepers didn't like seeing him unhappy, so they decided that perhaps it would be best if they looked for a home for 
him somewhere else.  Finally they found a zoo in Australia that was happy to take Clyde.  His new enclosure has a large pool, 
hollow logs to hide in, and two other otters for company.
Back at Wellington Zoo, Bonnie has one other otter to share her home.  He's known as Dad, though he's actually 
Bonnie's grandad.
And the zookeepers at Clyde's new home have been warned – watch out for escape artist Clyde!


Jiani
by Jan Trafford

Jiani Hu is one of the best table tennis players in New Zealand.  She is the New Zealand under-thirteen and under-fifteen 
champion.  And she's only nine years old!  
In national competitions, Jiani often competes against players who are much older than she is.  She knows the rules so 
well that she also often helps to score other players' games.
Jiani is superfit, and she has an extra fast serve.  Other players often ask her how she does it.  The answer is – practice, 
practice, and more practice!
Jiani and her family live at the New Zealand Table Tennis Academy in Nelson.  Jiani's father, Binquan, is also her 
coach.  Jiani has table tennis lessons after school for between one and one and a half hours every day.  She also practises with 
some of the other students at the academy.  
The students live at the academy so that they can get the best possible table tennis coaching.  On weekdays they go to 
school in Nelson.  Some of the students come from other parts of New Zealand and some from other countries.  Jiani and her 
family come from China.  
In her spare time, Jiani often goes for picnics down by the creek with her family and some of the other students.  She 
also likes to ride her bike, read, and play pool – but most of all, she likes playing table tennis!
Photographs by Ian Trafford

Easy as Pie
by Diana Noonan

Make a silver picture frame.

You will need:
•	a rectangular foil pie tin about 20 centimetres x 15 centimetres (you could buy it at the supermarket)
•	some cardboard (for example, an old cereal packet)
•	sticky tape
•	string
•	a pencil, ruler, and stapler
•	a picture about the size of a postcard to put in your frame.

Making the frame
•	Measure the sides of your picture.
•	Cut a piece of cardboard 3 centimetres longer and 3 centimetres wider than your picture.
•	With the pencil, mark the cardboard about 2 centimetres in from each corner.  Rule lines on the cardboard like the ones 
in diagram ii.
•	Cut out the inside shape.  Now you have a cardboard frame.

Covering the frame
•	Cut the sides off your pie tin.  Lay the cardboard frame on the flat piece of foil.  Keep the frame in place with sticky 
tape.
•	Use a ruler and pencil to draw a line around the outside of the cardboard frame, keeping the line about 1 centimetre out 
from the frame's edge.
•	Draw another line around the inside of the frame, keeping the line about 1 centimetre in from the frame's edge.  Remove 
the tape and lift off the cardboard frame.
•	Carefully cut around the lines on the foil.
•	Put the frame back onto the foil, and fold the foil over the frame's edges.  Snip into the inside corners of the foil to help 
you.  (See diagram iv.)

Finishing off
•	Use a pencil to press patterns into the foil on the front of the frame.
•	Tape your picture onto the back of the frame.
•	Cut a piece of cardboard to fit over the back of the frame.  Staple it into place.
•	Tape some string across the back of the frame and hang it up.

Counting Lambs
Story and photographs by Sarah Reid

Can you tell how many of these sheep are having twins and which ones are not pregnant at all?
No?
Neither can the farmer who owns them.
In the past, farmers wished that they could see inside their animals so that they could take better care of them.  Now they 
can.
Ewes can be scanned using ultrasound in the same way that a human mother has a scan to check that her baby is healthy 
or whether she is expecting twins.
When the ewes have been pregnant for two months and the lambs are due in three months' time, a scanning operator 
comes to the farm.  He brings special scanning equipment with him.
He sets up the scanner under a heavy black cover because otherwise the sunlight makes it hard to see the screen.  The 
farmer and a helper chase the ewes up to the scanning operator.
One by one, each ewe stands on a platform with her head held firmly so that she can't get away.  She must have an 
empty stomach for the scan to show up clearly.  These ewes are hungry.  They haven't eaten for half a day.
The scanning operator moves the sensor quickly over each ewe's stomach.  He must be quick because the ewe won't 
stand still for more than a few seconds.
The sensor sends sound waves into the ewe's stomach.  The sound waves bounce off the lamb inside, and the computer 
forms the patterns of the returning waves into a picture on the screen.  
In a few seconds, the operator can tell whether the ewe is having one lamb, twin lambs, or none at all.
This ewe is having one lamb, so she is sprayed with an orange mark.  Ewes that are not pregnant get a purple mark.  
Most of this farmer's ewes are having twins, so they are not marked at all.
The ewes that are having twins are given extra grass to eat.  They will need it while they are pregnant and also after their 
lambs are born, when they will need to make enough milk to feed two lambs for three months.
The operator who scanned these ewes is good at his job and very fast.  He can scan three hundred ewes in an hour.  It 
costs the farmer 50 cents for each sheep.  That doesn't sound like much, but if there are 1 500 sheep, it adds up to a lot of money.
The operator also scans cows and even dogs.  He can see how many pups a mother dog is having, and he checks whether 
they are facing the right way to be born easily.  If the pups are going to be born backwards, they might need help from a vet.
Ultrasound scanning makes the farmer's job much easier, and it can save animals' lives.
But it's not till lambing time that the farmer finds out whether the scanner made any mistakes!

Thank ewe. The end.

You've always been a bit of a black sheep, Eunice … but I know I'll never find 
another ewe.

Slow Down!
by Vivienne Joseph
and the children of Windley School, Porirua

Our school is on a dangerous corner.  There's another school just across the road from ours, and lots of kids have been hurt on 
the road, especially before and after school.  
There are a lot of cars on our road, and many of them go too fast to be able to stop if someone is on the crossing.
So we decided to do something.
We decided we would all stand beside the busy road holding banners.  We would shout out slogans and raps to tell the 
drivers that they must SLOW DOWN and take more care.  
Our teachers helped us paint colourful banners and posters with messages on them:
SLOW DOWN!
GIVE KIDS A CHANCE!
We made up a rap:
"Who are you?"
"We are the children of the future."
"What do you want?"
"We want drivers to slow down
and keep their eyes on the signs!"
"Why?"
"We don't want to die –
we want to stay alive!"
We practised playing our drums in time to the words.
When the day came, we all lined up, holding our banners.  Across the road, the kids from the other school were doing 
the same.  There were police cars with flashing lights at both ends of the line, helping us to tell motorists to SLOW DOWN!
As the cars went past, driving slowly, we played our drums and yelled our rap out.  The drivers rolled their windows 
down, looking surprised.  Some of them tooted at us and called out, "Good on you!"  But some were embarrassed and didn't look 
at us at all.
That night, we saw our photos in the paper, and there was a story about us on the TV news.  
We were pleased we'd tried to do something about our school's problem.  And you never know – it might even help 
people remember to …
SLOW DOWN!

Pavement Art
by Marion Rigg

It's Pavement Art Week in Putàruru.  
These works of art will all be washed away in the next rainstorm.  In the meantime, 
though, the footpaths of Putàruru have turned into an art gallery.  

Making Honey
by Annette Seear

Jessie loves honey.  Bread and honey always tastes good, but honey straight from the hive tastes extra good!
Jessie's mother Jill is a beekeeper.  Her hives are set up near some pòhutukawa trees, so her bees produce mainly 
pòhutukawa honey.  
A beehive is a big community of honeybees.  Each member of the community has a special job.  
The queen bee's job is to lay eggs and so keep the hive going.  
The worker bees are all female.  The different types of worker bees each have different jobs to do.  Some of them collect 
nectar and pollen and bring them back to the hive to be made into honey.
Honeybees may fly up to 8 kilometres from their hive, and they can make up to 100 trips in a day.  If they want to let the 
other bees know where the best flowers are, they do a special dance.  The direction of the dance and the way the bees move show 
the other bees where to go to find the flowers.
When the trees stop flowering at the end of summer, it's time to collect the honey.  Jill wears a special suit that 
completely covers her body and face but allows her to see and breathe.  This will help to protect her from being stung.  
Some of the worker bees are guard bees.  Their job is to protect the hive.  They will sting any strange bees (or people) 
who come too close.  "Even when I was wearing my suit, a bee once sneaked through the laces of my boot and stung me on the 
foot," says Jill.  
Before she opens the hive, Jill lights the "smoker" and uses it to puff smoke into the hive.  This calms the bees down and 
helps to stop them attacking her.  
Inside the hive, there are nine frames filled with honeycomb.  The bees make the cells of the honeycomb out of wax, 
which they produce from their bodies.  
Jill brings the frames back home and uses a hot, sharp knife to remove the wax capping from the honeycomb.  This wax 
layer helps to stop the honey from fermenting in the hive.  
Then Jill puts the frames full of honey into the honey extractor.  When Jessie turns the handle, the honey spins off and 
collects on the side of the drum.  It's hard work!
Jill lifts the extractor onto the kitchen bench and unplugs the tap.  She has a sieve and a container directly underneath to 
collect the honey.  
Later, Jessie will help to fill jars with honey to store for the winter or to give away.  But first – bread and honey for 
everyone!


Ouch!  I've Been Stung!

The honeybee's sting has a tiny hook on the end of it, and the bee can't pull it out again.  The bee dies soon after it has used its 
sting.
If you are stung by a bee, quickly try to brush off the tiny sac of poison that the bee leaves on your skin, or scrape it off 
with a blunt knife.  If you try to pick it off, your fingernails might burst the sac, and that will release more poison into your skin.

Chunky Chalks
by Jill MacGregor

"Where's my chalk?" asked Mrs MacGregor.  "Sam, have you been eating it again?"
Every day after lunch, the teacher would ask the same question.  It was the hopscotch season, and we'd been using the 
chalk to draw hopscotches on the concrete.  
One day, during library time, Sam was reading a science book and found a recipe for making chalk.  "We could make 
our own chalk," he said.  "Then we could use that for drawing hopscotches."
"Great," said Mrs MacGregor.  "Then maybe I'll be able to keep my chalk for myself!"
We read the recipe to find out what we'd need for making chalk.
Our teacher bought a big, 5-kilogram bag of plaster of Paris from the hardware shop.  She found some little bottles of 
coloured dye in the art cupboard.  We all saved plastic cups and yoghurt pots and brought wooden sticks and small plastic bags 
from home.
We followed the instructions carefully.
To make one stick of chalk, we tipped two cups of plaster of Paris into a container.  We measured three-quarters of a 
cup of water and poured it slowly into the fine, white powder.  The mixture bubbled and fizzed.
We put two tablespoons of dye into the mixture.  It made shiny, colourful swirls.  Then we stirred the mixture quickly 
until it was smooth and creamy and all the lumps had disappeared.  
Then we worked in pairs.  One of us held a plastic bag open while the other one poured in the mixture.  Then we rolled 
up the open side to squeeze out all the air.
Hayden and Zeke made a two-toned orange and purple chalk in a plastic bottle.  Nobody wanted to make white chalk!
As the sticks of chalk began to harden, they became warm.  Now we could mould them into shape with our hands.  
Rebecca pegged the bags of chalk on coat-hangers and hung the hangers from the top of the blackboard so that the 
chalks would set.
By next afternoon, the chalks were hard and ready to unwrap.  We peeled off the bags very slowly.
"Wow!  They're so chunky!" cried Katherine.
The sticks of chalk were mostly smooth and strong.  Some of them were square, some were fat and stubby, some were 
thin and crinkly – and some broke when we unpeeled the plastic bags.  To make the chalks even stronger, we left them on the 
windowsill for another twenty-four hours.
The next morning, we were allowed to go out to play early.  We wanted to test out our chalk.  We drew hopscotches 
with huge numbers in the squares, and we also played games of noughts and crosses.
We decided that the chalks were a great success.  They were easy to hold, and we didn't scrape our fingers on the 
concrete.  The colours were bright and didn't rub off easily.  We could even draw with them like pastels on black art paper.
But Mrs MacGregor couldn't use our chalk to write with – it just slid around on the smooth blackboard and made a 
horrible screeching noise.  
"Great," we said.  "Now we can keep our chalk for ourselves!"


