Week 6 North America

Howdy and Welcome to North America

North America Facts

Native to North America

 There are 457 species of mammals, 914 birds, 662 reptiles, more than 300 amphibians native to North America.

A Spaning Continent

North America incapsulates 23 total countries from Greenland to Costa Rica.

Largest City in North America

At 573 square miles and a population of 8.855 million Mexico City, Mexico is the largest city in North America.

Largest Lake in the World

Lake Superior is the largest fresh water lake in the world. The surface area of the lake is 31,700 square miles. Lake Superior is in fact so large it is shared by Ontario Canada, Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Death Valley Desert

Death Valley is a desert in eastern California. It is so named because many pioneers in the 1800’s barely survived its extremely harsh conditions. Death Valley receives less than one cup of water a year!

Looking for a biome we’ve got it!

A biome is defined as a community of plant and animal life which is spread throughout an extensive area of fairly uniform climate. Amazingly North America has a biome representing every major biome on earth. These include tropical rainforest, grassland, desert, tundra and coral reef.

Animal of the Week: Opossum

Poor opossums are one of the most misunderstood and underappreciated creatures out there. Often thought to be dirty pests, these wonderful creatures are actually clean, intelligent, and beneficial to people. First off opossums and possums are completely different animals opossums are found only in North America while possums are found in Australia. They are actually marsupials and the only marsupial found north of Mexico. Opossums are wonderful when it comes to helping keep away nasty disease-spreading ticks. Unlike other forest animals that carry ticks and spread them around opossums eat about 90% of ticks that attach to them and eat ticks, they find in your yard as well. Another great thing about opossums is they don’t carry rabies. This is super rare in opossums because, unlike other animals and even people, opossums’ body temperature is actually too low for the virus to survive. Opossums are wonderful animals who not only don’t carry diseases but help prevent them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLYofE1WFMs

Click on the videos below to learn more about farms, snakes, beavers, and chickens!

Don’t miss out on this week’s Around the World Adventure. Learn about North American animals, people, partake in fun activities, and learn about beaver dams!