The Beach Sand and Finding Nemo

Thurday (26/03/2009)

a) Flash Cards Revision.

b) Where does the beach sand come from?
Ze Yan asked this question yesterday while we were watching the sharks’ video clips.
Today, I brought some seashells for the kids to examine. Some were good, some broken while the others were broken into grains of sand.
I posed the same question to the other kids. Their answers:
Shu Wei: The beach was around all the while.
Yun Zhe: No! It comes from the rocks under the sea.
Jian Wei : Teacher, it comes from the mountains just like the book you showed us yesterday.
Jin Nan : The rocks inside will break and then, they become sand.
Teacher: How does that happen?
Eugene: Because the waves are so strong and break the rocks. Then they flow to the beach.
Teacher: Where is there wave?......One of the reasons is because of the strong wind.
So, its true. The broken rocks, corals and broken shells eventually become so fine that they form beach sand. The strong waves also carry the empty shells to the sand.
The kids queued up to listen to the big shell. They could hear the sound of the ocean.

c) Film : Finding Nemo
From this film, the kids could see the actual ocean that we had been talking about. Types of sea creature including: Clown Fish, Blue Tag, Sting Ray and of course, Great White Shark and hammerhead shark that we learnt earlier. The kids were very excited and they would ask questions for any doubts as we watched the film in English medium. Some other friends would answer on behalf of me.
Summary: Bigger fish eat smaller fish or even their eggs and babies. Nemo was still an egg together with 399 other eggs in a small cave. His parents live in the Sea Anenome which is just above the cave. Unfortunately, Nemo’s mother and siblings died when eaten by a bigger fierce fish. Nemo’s ftaher brought up Nemo until he was ready for school. All the while, they live in their home, the Sea Anemone. Sea Anemone would protect Clown Fish as it has tentacles that would sting other sea creatures and cause poisonous. At school, Nemo made a few friends. As Nemo had unusual fins, his father was really worried of Nemo’s safety. When Nemo swam to the open sea just to prove to his father he was a good swimmer, a diver caught Nemo and separated from his father. Nemo’s father; Marlin made a new friend; the blue tag called Dory who helped him to search for Nemo. (We stopped here to continue tomorrow).
Morale: The kids learnt that being angry would not help us at good thinking. Thus, its better to control our anger and emotion before makinga decision.