Australia &

Federated States of Capital: Capital: Official Language: English Official Language: English Cool Facts: The island of Yap uses carved stone circles, with a Cool Facts: hole in the middle, as a type of money. Most of these The dry Outback covers most of Australia and most 1 Australia are smaller but some can be up to 12 feet tall.9 of the population lives along the coast. has a great variety of plants and animals, with over 80 percent of these only found here, like the kanga- 2 roo, koala and platypus. The Great Barrier Reef, off of the country’s coast, is the world’s largest living Capital: 3 Australia structure and can be seen from space. Official Languages: has the world’s largest cattle4 ranch, which is about the size of New Hampshire. Australia has world’s English, Fijian and Hindi 5 and the longest fence, its about 3,400 miles long, Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House Cool Facts: are world famous. Australia is also world famous for Fiji is known for beautiful islands and also has the 6 its surfing. traditional game called Veicaqe Moli, which is 10 soccer played with an orange.

Marshall Islands Capital: Official Languages: English and Marshallese Capital: Cool Facts: South The has the world’s largest shark sanctuary, an area where fishing for sharks is not Official Languages: English and Gilbertese allowed.11

Cool Facts: Kiribati is the only country in the world that lies in the Northern, Eastern, Western and Southern Capital: 7 hemispheres. Official Language: English, Maori and New Zealand Sign Language Capital: Cool Facts: New Zealand is world famous for its breathtaking 12 and Official Language: scenery, it has the world’s largest hot spring Nauruan Blue Lake is known to have the clearest fresh water in the world.13 The people from New Zealand are nick- 14 This Cool Facts: named Kiwis, after the native, flightless bird. 15 country also has one of the world’s steepest streets, Nauru is made up of one tiny island, that is about 8 16 smallest and rarest dolphin and there are no land square miles and is the smallest island country in the 17 world.8 snakes anywhere. Copyright Homemade-Preschool.com Australia & Oceania

Palau Capital: Ngerulmud Capital: Official Languages: English and Palauan Official Languages: Tok Pisin, English, Cool Facts: Hiri Motu and is known for it’s snorkeling and scuba diving.21 Papua New Guinean Sign Language Jellyfish Lake, in Palau, is full of millions of harmless, migrating Jellyfish that people can swim with.22 Cool Facts: There are over 850 languages spoken in Papua New 18 Its Guinea, the most of any country in the world.19 flag was designed by a 15 year old girl. It is also home to one of the world’s only poisonous birds, the 20 Hooded Pitohui. Capital: Official Languages: Samoan and English Capital: Cool Facts: Official Language: Samoa is known for its beautiful scenery and rich English Polynesian culture. The Alofaaga Blowholes shoot ocean water high into the air when the pressure of waves crash into the other end of the blowhole Cool Facts: 23 tunnels. Solomon Islands are known for their beauty. A lagoon is a body of water that is separated from the sea by sand or coral reef and the Marovo Lagoon, found here, is the world’s largest saltwater lagoon, 24 Capital: Nuku'alofa Official Languages: English and Tongan Capital: Cool Facts: The major crops that are grown in Tonga are coco - Official Languages: nuts, vanilla beans and bananas.25 Tonga is known English and Tuvaluan for being a world famous sport fishing destination.26

Cool Facts: 27 Tuvalu’s highest elevation is 15 feet above sea level and the Caves of Nanumanga are located over 30 feet underwater on a cliff. The caves show signs of Capital: there once being a fire here, meaning the cave was once above water.28

Official Languages: English, French and Bislama Cool Facts: In Vanuatu, having pigs is highly prized, especially ones that have rounded tusks. These pigs are consid- ered to be a sign of wealth and power29 and life in this country is centered around them.

Copyright Homemade-Preschool.com AUSTRALIA and OCEANIA SOURCES 1 – Freeman, Mary. “About the Australian Outback.” USAToday.com. 2015. 2 – “Australia’s Animals.” Australia.com. 2015. 3 – “Largest Organisms.” Wikipedia.org. 02 Oct. 2015. 4 – “Anna Creek Station.” Wikipedia.org. 28 June 2015. 5 – “Dingo Fence.” Wikipedia.org. 1 June 2015. 6 – Bremner, Jade. “World’s 50 Best Surf Spots.” CNN.com. 1 July 2013. 7 – “Kiribati.” Wikipedia.org. 27 Sept. 2015. 8 – “World Map/Nauru.” WorldAtlas.com. 2015. 9 – “Rai Stones.” Wikipedia.org. 28 Sept. 2015. 10 – “Fiji/Fact File.” RoughGuides.com. 2015. 11 – Braun, David. “Marshall Islands Declares World’s Largest Shark Sanctuary.” NationalGeographic.com. 03 Oct. 2011. 12 – “Frying Pan Lake.” Wikipedia.org. 28 Aug. 2015. 13 – “Blue Lake, Nelson – World’s Clearest Lake.” NewZealand.com. 2015. 14 – “Kiwi (People).” Wikipedia.org. 08 April 2015. 15 – “World’s Steepest Roads.” FoxNews.com. 03 Mar. 2014. 16 – “Maui’s Dolphin.” Wikipedia.org. 01 Oct. 2015. 17 – “No Snakes Just Crazy Kea and Bubbling Mud.” NewZealand.com. 2015. 18 – “Languages of Papua New Guinea.” Wikipedia.com. 5 Aug. 2015. 19 – “Papua New Guinea.” Wikipedia.org. 1 Sept. 2015. 20 – “Hooded Pitohui.” Wikipedia.org. 27 Apr. 2015. 21 – “Palau: Snorkeling the Rock Islands.” OceanicSociety.org. 2014. 22 – “Golden Jelly sh.” NationalGeographic.com. 2015. 23 – “Alofaaga Blowholes.” Wikipedia.org . 07 Mar. 2015. 24 – “Solomon Islands Marovo Lagoon.” SolomonTimes.com. 28 Aug. 2008. 25 – “Economy of Tonga.” Wikipedia.org. 18 July 2015. 26 – “Tonga’s Biggest Blue Marlin.” FishTonga.com. 2015. 27 – “Geography of Tuvalu.” Wikipedia.org. 07 Sept. 2015. 28 – “Caves of Nanumanga.” Wikipedia.org. 15 June 2015. 29 – “Vanuatu Culture.” VanuatuInformation.com. 2015.