Fifth Grade
Worksheets
A Letter from Laysan
"Mac," said Mom, "you got a letter from Liz. It's postmarked Hawaii."
Mac almost grabbed the letter from his mom. He loved getting letters from his sister. She got to see many different places with the Fish and Wildlife Service, and he loved the stories she told. He began reading.
Dear Mac,
We arrived on Laysan Island today. You may not know that it is one of the Hawaiian Islands. It is nearly 800 miles northwest of Honolulu by boat, which is the only way to reach it. I thought a couple of times that we would never get here.
It was tricky getting around the island's reef, but we are finally here. We spent the last few hours unloading the ship. No one lives on the island, so we had to bring everything we might need.
I got my tent set up but still have a few things to arrange. I wish you could see this place. It's a small island about a mile wide and one and one-half miles long, with a salt water lake in the middle of it.
What is really impressive are all of the birds. There are all kinds of seabirds - boobies, frigate birds, petrels, terns, and shearwaters. I know you may not find those too interesting, but there is another one you might like; it's a duck called the Laysan teal.
I was thrilled when I had the opportunity to come on this survey because these are the rarest ducks in the world. Once they lived on all the Hawaiian Islands. When people came to the islands, they brought rats, pigs, and other animals. Eventually these visitors killed all the ducks on the other islands.
