Poetry / "All About" Books / How-to Books / Personal Narratives

Students in Powerful Writers workshops choose to write about topics that they are passionate about.  

All About Sharks

By Seth Lambert-Vail, 2^nd grade, Graham Hill Elementary

Introduction

Did you know that sharks aren’t just teeth like on TV?  They’re not as fierce as you think they are.  Keep reading to know more.

1                   Different Kinds of Sharks

Great whites are known to be the fiercest shark on earth at the time.  It used to be the Megalodon, the great ancestor of the great white.  A great white can take a bite as big as an adult’s head!  A great white’s teeth are four times the size of a human’s.  Sharks are often found in Australia.

Whale shark is big but harmless.  Like the whale, the whale shark eats krill and plankton.  They have holes for ears (if they had ears like us it would be hard to swim).  The whale shark is a filter feeder, like megamouth and basking shark.

Sharks are often found in salt water, not always.  Fun fact:  If you upset a shark or go in their territory they might defend or attack; but that is very unlikely, only about fifty people get attacked a year and about one hundred sharks are fished a year. 

2                   Rodney Fox

Rodney Fox, the world famous shark expert, was attacked by a man hunter (aka great white shark), and had four hundred sixty two stitches!  The shark crunched his rib cage, popped a lung and cut his stomach open.  This is a lesson that sharks are sometimes deadly.

3                   Birth

What if I told you that some sharks are born in mermaid’s purses?  They aren’t.  But some are born live.  If you want to draw a mermaid’s purse draw an oval.  Next add a half circle at each end.  Then add a squiggly line at each end as so.  They look strange but I find them awesome!  Please save sharks!  If you don’t, there will be a savage creature way worse!  Sharks are good for our environment; they keep the population of fish and people low.  Did you know we are the only thing the world doesn’t need?

4                   Teeth

What if I told you that a kind of shark had teeth as big as bananas?  Would you believe me?  There was!!!!!!  But they’re extinct.  It’s the teeth of the Megalodon.  Some sharks go through more than thirty-thousand teeth in a lifetime!  Fun fact:  If a shark had a tooth fairy they would be rich by the time they were five!  If a [shark] loses a tooth, a new one will come in in twenty-four hours!  Sharks have three rows of teeth.  True or false:  some sharks have no teeth?  True!  If you want to know more on sharks and Rodney Fox, read the book Shark Attack!

About the Author

Seth is a shark lover at the age of seven; his hobbies are reading and gymnastics.