Writing Activities: Year 5

Hippopotamus

Weighing up to a whopping four tons, hippos are the third-largest land-living mammal after elephants and white rhinos. Hippopotamuses love water and can spend up to 16 hours a day in it to keep them cool in the hot sun. However, at sunset, they leave the water to grab a bite to eat.

In this clip, we will see some hippos dining out in a place we might not expect – a South African town!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06w619x/player

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Credit: BBC Two - Cities: Nature's New Wild

Literacy idea

From the perspective of a hippopotamus, write a review about your dining experience in St Lucia that will be posted on the World Wildlife Web for all hippos to see.

Make sure you…

  • Describe your first impressions of your dining area
  • Discuss the range of food on offer
  • Describe how the food looked and tasted
  • Rate your overall experience out of five stars
  • State whether you would return to this restaurant and explain why/why not

Wider Curriculum ideas

Use this information from natgeokids.com to create a fact file on hippos. Make sure you take pride in your presentation, and draw images to accompany the key information you record.