Turtles

Tuesday (26/04/2011)

a) Our Pet Turtles
• I brought in 2 young turtles of 5 months old. The kids started thinking names for them. Finally, they said the female is called “Girlny” while the male is called “Boyny”….haaaaa thanks to Rei’s creative idea.
• I brought the male out and the kids sat in a big circle taking turns to observe and pet the “Red Ear Turtle”. Then, they said put it on the floor and see who Boyny likes. Ehhmm…it crawled towards me from the centre…

b) About turtles.
• As the kids have learnt about turtles in the morning session, I asked them to talk about turtles. Most have already forgotten, thus; I have to ask questions to recall their memory.
• First we differentiate tortoise, freshwater turtle and also saltwater turtle. A tortoise spends most of its life on land and carries a heavier shell. It can hide under its shell for protection. It has 5 toes o its feet. A freshwater turtle has got lighter shell and it has webbed feet toes that look like a duck. It allows it to swim easily in a pond or lake. Meawnhile, sea turtle has got flippers because it swims a lot in the ocean. It only goes to the land to lay eggs and then depart away from it. Usually freshwater turtles can hide under their shells but not ocean turtles. They have no teeth but sharp beak. Some eat plants, some eat meat. They swim beautifully. They breathe through their nostrils as they have lungs. Turtles always look like they are crying but not because they are actually discharging salt from their body.

c) Video clips.
• We watched a few clips including male seahorse giving birth, turtles in the ocean. We also watched clips on KLCC Aquaria as the kids are going for a trip on this coming Thursday.

d) Recording and drawing.
• The kids drew pictures of seahorses and turtles swimming in the ocean. More guidance was needed for drawing seahorses.

Seahorse

Monday( 25/04/2011)

a) Vocabulary recap
• We recapped words that we have learnt for this theme.

b) About seahorse.
• Initially, I asked the kids lots of questions so that they can guess the answers such as, does it swim?, how does it protect itself?, where does it live? Ad etc.
• Seahorse can be as small as 10 cm and as big as 30 cm. It swims like horse riding and very slow. It has 3 fins and will hook to seaweed with its tail to avoid being washed by the sea currents. It usually live in seaweed bed. It protects itself by changing colour. I has no teeth but suck food using its snout. It eats little shrimps and shell animals. When it meets its mate, they dance together and the females give its eggs of about 1500 to the male which will keep in its pouch. The eggs take about 10 to 40 days to hatch. During this period, the male carries the eggs and the female will always come in the morning to greet its husband checking on him and the eggs. However, once the eggs hatched, they will not meet one another again. Seahorse are endangered because humans catch them for cusine and also medicine. Predators include moray eels, whales, sharks and etc.

c) Planting
• During the Earth Day discussion, Qian Joe and Xing Tong suggested that we plant more trees to make the Earth a better place. The other kids agreed.
• We planted green and red beans. I further explained that planting own vegetables will reduce transportation air pollution and it also gives out more Oxygen as well as save money.
• Each kid was given a shell carton to recycle as their flower pot. They put in some cotton and added on a few seeds before watering them. We also did a pot with no water and a pot in the dark. This is because Wee Hong said that don’t need sunlight for planting.

Swim bladder

Friday (15/04/2011) a) Experiment • We recapped on our cut up activity of Mackerel fish which we steamed after that. Mackerel is a saltwater fish; thus has got swim bladder. • Freshwater don’t have and thus; they would sink to the freshwater bed when sleeping. However, most fishes of saltwater has got swim bladder. • When they want to surf up to the surface, the bladder will inflate to allow Oxygen enter; making it lighter. To dive into the ocean, the bladder will release the gas and it gets heavier and sink. • For this experiment, we went to the backyard whereby we filled up the big pail with water. I blew a small plastic bag and put on the water surface. It floated. Then, I deflated it and water gets onto it easily making it heavier and thus sinking down. • The plastic bag then pollute the ocean and some ocean animals ate them thinking they were food such as turtles snapping the plastic bags. b) Word list • We discussed on words learnt throughput the week. These included: Sting ray, Manta ray, Angler fish, poison and protect. c) Nemo Continuation • Marlin “Nemo’s father” and Dory saw a whale which swallowed them into got trapped on the whale’s mouth and tongue. Dory thought that he could speak whale language ad started talking to the whale. Marlin thought that Dory was insane and it felt so disappointed as it could not meet its son, Nemo anymore. Suddenly, the whale opened its mouth to swallow more food and water. They fell into its stomach but blown out of the blowhole! Hooray….it was like a great fountain and they were in the ocean again but this time right in the middle of Sydney harbour. • A pelican brought them to find Nemo but at that time, the dentist’s niece had come to collect Nemo as her birthday gift. Nemo pretended to die by floating upside down. There were a lot of riots and Nemo fell into the toilet bowl and all the way to the ocean pipe line before flushing to the ocean. …….(to be continued)

Ray Fish

Wednesday (13/04/2011) a) About Ray • There are 500 types of Ray fish and the smallest is only 10 cm while the biggest is Manta ray about 67 m long….slightly smaller than a Giant octopus. • Each has got 2 eyes on the top surface, 5 pairs of gills below and 6th pair of gills above its eyes; looking like eyebrows. Its nostrils are below. Its fins can be of various shapes from round, slightly square and also to diamond shape. • Its tail is long and strong. Some have got shorter ones. • Protection: Some tails has got poison. Some have got spikes. Some have got thorns on its body. Some have got electricity to electrocute preys. They can also camouflage. They like hiding under the sand as their eyes can look up from the sand surface to catch their preys as well as to protect themselves from predators. • Preys: Invertebrates such as planktons, shell animals and also small fishes. • Predators: Hammerhead sharks, Moray eels and humans. • Features: No bones but have got cartilage like our nose. They are friendly to people and only attack to protect themselves. They glide beautifully as if flying in the ocean. They like sea bed, ocean bed and coral reefs. A few species can jump. Already existed when dinosaurs were around. They can bend their tails. They use their body skin to sense preys and danger. • Manta ray has got 2 lobes in front of their eyes which assisted them to push the food into their mouth. Manta’s mouth is in front unlike the others which are below. • Its skin can be used to make human goods such as bags, shoes, wallets and etc. b) Nemo Continuation • They swam deep into the ocean and saw an Anglerfish which chased them. Luckily, they managed to escape as the diver’s goggles trapped the Anglerfish to a rock. Dory manages to read the address which was in Australia. They swam up and met a school of Moonfish that showed them the direction of Sydney. Along the journey, they were surrounded by a big group of jellyfish. At first, Dory and Marlin hopped onto jellyfish head which is not poisonous. Then, they accidentally touched the tentacles and fell. They were saved by a group of turtles who were migrating. They met the baby turtles too. They asked him to tell a joke but Marlin couldn’t. However, he passed the message that “Nemo, don’t worry. Daddy is coming to rescue you.” The message was eventually passed round and Nemo was very happy to hear from a pelican that visits the dentist. • The turtles left Dory and Marlin nearby Australian ocean. ……..to be continued

Anglerfish

Monday (11/04/2011) a) The dark ocean. • Who live in here? Well, the sunlight can’t reach here and there are various species of weird fishes living here usually having light in their body as protection and to attract preys. • Anglerfish is one of them. The female has got a torch hanging from its spine. The male has no torch. Chun Kit asked if it has got batteries..:) To attract preys, they first camouflage themselves to blend with the black ocean. The bacteria on their body lights up the torch. From far, it looks like a bait (similar to a fishing rod bait) and as the prey draws nearby, it starts to change its colour to be visible ad especially its sharp long teeth look extremely long and scary! • Its mouth can expand twice the size of its body and it has got very flexible body. It eats meat whether alive or dead. However, there are also Anglerfishes in the sea which like hiding under the rocks. These Anglerfishes attract human as their tails taste good when cook similar to the taste of lobsters’ tails…..eehhmmmm! The kids said they don’t think that they would like to try. • Anglerfishes have got a lot of bacteria on its body especially the male. The male live very short life and thus would quickly find mates for reproduction. b) Drawing: The mini Anglerfish. • This mini picture is to decorate our aquarium craft. The kids drew with pencils and coloured them nicely. c) Nemo Cartoon Continuation. • Marlin (Nemo’s father) chased the driver but the speedboat was too fast for him. He didn’t give up ad asked the ocean animals if they saw his son……all ignored him except Dory, a Blue Tang fish who said he saw the boat. They swam together but suddenly Dory started scolding Marlin of why it followed her. Actually, Dory has got a short term memory problem. Then she remembered again and both started arguing. Suddenly, a great white shark came inviting them to its home to be friens. The shark said it has sworn to be a vegetarian together with its 2 other friends such as Hammerhead shark. However, Dory accidentally cut its fin and the shark smelled it ad got excited to eat meat again. They chased one another and trapped in an old submarine that had got bombs in it. The bomb fell and the sharks died while both Dory and Marlin chased after the diver’s goggles which fell into the dark ocean………to be continued.

Craft: Anglerfish

Tuesday (12/4/2011) a) Finding Nemo • The diver’s goggle fell into the dark ocean. Marlin, Nemo’s father insisted to save the the goggles as it has got the diver’s address. Dory, The Blue Tang fish, helped him. At first, it was so afraid to go deep inside but Dory encouraged him by singing a song. Finally, when they reached the bottom ocean floor, it was totally dark……..nothing…but when they saw a light; they were so relieved! Hmmm…..as they touched the light, It started to glow even more…..ahhhh….it’s an Anglerfish! They swam fast with Marlin distracting the Anglerfish while Dory trying to read the address. It was in Australia. Finally, the Anglerfish got stuck at the rock! They swam above to the bright ocea and met a school of Moonfish that showed them the direction to Australia. However, as they swam near the ocean hills, they were surrounded by lots of poisonous jellyfish. Dory got stung but Marlin saved him. They were dizzy but safe. Meanwhile, Nemo was in a dentist’s aquarium in Australia. The Tank Gang were happy to have Nemo and they planned to escape into the big ocean. Their first attempt failed and Nemo almost got crushed by the filter propeller. To be continued…. b) Craft: Anglerfish. • First, I sketched a huge one on the whiteboard. Then I used crayons to colour a piece of cardboard with colourful colours. Then, I coloured a black layer covering the colours. Then the kids took a pencil to sketch the cardboard. Finally, they take the pencil end to scratch the the pencil line. • The kids started colouring the cardboard but not all managed to scratch yet as we had Wushu replacement class.

Let’s draw!

Wednesday (06/04/2011) a) Flash cards • We recapped on words learnt such as octopus, ocean, sink, submarine and etc. b) Body Movement • We danced to the song “Yellow Submarine”. We formed a circle and pretended that we were driving the submarine. We marched in a queue frontwards. However, when we heard the lyric, “submarine”; the kids turned backward and kept dancing in a queue. When they heard the lyric, “submarine” again, they turned backwards again. This game trained their listening skill. c) We can draw. • The kids have learnt so much about octopus; thus today, they started sketching the octopus. There were 2 options. • The cartoon version or simpler one with step by step drawing guide. It looked cute. • The other version looked more like a Giant Octopus and has got a siphon ad a beak too. • The kids labeled the picture. They loved drawing the octopus. They added their own creative ideas.

The Best Mother

Tuesday (05/04/2011) a) Mother Octopus Yun Xin: My mum said the suction cups helped them to walk well especially on slippery surfaces. Qian Joe: Can the cup be removed? • Suction cups are good at tasting sense besides enabling them to walk well. They are very powerful; thus, it’s very difficult to remove them. • They are usually shy except when they are looking for mates. A female octopus can lay up to 200,000 eggs which hung in branches like flowers. A few months after mating, male octopuses will die. Meanwhile female octopus will protect its eggs for 1 month without eating any food. Jun Yu suggested that octopuses should store some food in advance but that will attract other predators. Thus, a hungry female octopus will sometimes eats its own arms……eerrggghhh……wow! It’s okay because their arms will grow again. However, a few months after that, mother octopus will also die. (Actually, the death of parents is due to losing of nutrients which were required for reproduction.) b) The Intelligent Octopus • The kids said that octopuses can’t learn letters or shapes. We played a game whereby I prepared 3 cups of the same colour. Then I placed an eraser in the cup and arranged the cups on the table with mouth facing downwards. Next, I swapped them quickly so that the kids try guessing the cup which contained the eraser. It was lots of fun. A few kids tried this game while their friends guessed. After that Qian Joe lent us his water bottle. I closed the cap very tightly and got each kid to try opening it. Woohh….most of them could which were the boys! • Actually, an octopus can learn by observation, they can recognise shapes as well as opeing a very tight jar using its muscular arms! c) Video clips • First: A giant octopus bred in a huge aquarium. It camouflaged or changed colour. Wow! • Second: female octopus taking care of her thousands of eggs. Jun Yu said they looked like bunches of flowers. • Third: The eggs hatched into baby octopuses. • Fourth: The octopus opened a very tight jar. • Fifth: The octopus battled the shark. • Sixth: The octopus attacked a submarine periscope.

The Octopus

Thursday (31/03/2011) a) Octopus l I crumpled some pieces of newspaper into a big ball and pasted onto the whiteboard. The kids imagined that they were looking through a periscope. Then, they guessed what the big ball was all about. After a few guesses, they guessed correctly. It was a big octopus. l Questions were asked to see if the kids know much about octopus. Qian Joe: It has 100 mouths. Zhe Qing: It has 3 mouths. Xing Tong: It has 1 heart. Yun Xin: What happened f he arms were broken? Shawn: It will grow again. Rei: My father says it will squeeze black ink into the ocean as a protection. Xing Tong: A starfish can do wheel cart. Can an octopus do so? Jun Yu: What colour is the blood? Yee Xuan: How does it attack the prey? b) Information. l Oc means 8; thus octopus means an animal with 8 arms. It has 2 eyes and a sharp beak like a parrot. It has 3 hearts; thus it so very powerful as the blood supply gives it energy. The blood is blue. When the arm breaks off, it can grow again but slowly. It is a very smart animal. Kwong Yong said it can play football. “Haa….Paul the Octopus”. l It uses its arms to catch the prey and aqueeze it before using its beak to peck the prey. Then, it bites the prey slowly and injects its poisonous saliva into the prey, paralyzing it. Next, it can start biting its food. l Each arm has got 2 rows of suction cups. I got the kids to check the importance of the suction cups. To understand the importance of the hearts, the kids stod up and jumped around. They touched their before and after the jump. The heart beats the blood to all over the body. The heart beat is faster. Food gives us healthy blood supply. Teacher: If animals have heart, do they have blood? Kids: Yes! l That answer satisfied Jun Yu who was wondering of its blood colour which is blue. c) Hand-made Periscope. l It really takes a long time to complete our hand-made submarine because, we are doing it step by step with questions and opinions to take into account. l I showed the kids how to make a periscope. It requires 2 mirrors. First, Wee Hoing helped me to roll a cardboard into a cylinder shape. Then, Jun Yu and Zheng Yan helped me to paste some blue tack onto 2 pieces of small cardboard. I adjusted them to 45degree; that’s the rule. Xing Tong and Rei helped to paste the mirror sharpeners to the tack. Then, Qian Joe and Zhi Feng pasted the cardboards ono the cylinder. It worked! The kids took turn to look through it. d) Corner Playing. * Some kids preferred to play while some preferred to continue with the submarine craft. Rei, Tzen Yu, Yun Xin, Xing Tong Wee Hong, Jun Yu and Zheng Yuan voluntarily assisted to decorate and made the craft. The kids suggested the second submarine to be different. Thus, we decided to have different shapes of windows and doors.

Letter writing.

Wednesday (30/04/2011) a) The Periscope l When there’s window, we can see what’s outside; otherwise we can’t. Thus, we will use a tool call the periscope. It consists of 2 mirrors to allow light reflection so that the viewer can see what’s outside and above him or her. l I showed the kids my hand-made periscope. We had been looking for mirrors for the past few days and finally I found some mirror sharpeners from small bookshops……yes! l The kids took turns to see through it and are excited to see their friends as well as myself behind them. Thus, we shall make one more periscope together and place each on our submarines. We shall also place “kaleidoscope” or we call the “magic pattern scope” on each submarine. Hooray! b) Chunk Kit’s Sharing l Two days ago when we learning about Submarine, Chun Kit shared that his father always dive in the ocean. From the parents’ meeting, we got to know him better. Thus, I asked Chun Kit to inquire his father if he could lend us his diving suit. l He brought the suit for us today and of course the kids guessed what the tools were. Their first impression….wow! What’s that? l I’m not very good at those and got Chun Kit to explain briefly. There’s the Oxygen tank mouth tube. There are also the diver’s flippers for their feet. Zheng Yuan asked why a diver needs to wear the flippers. Then we recapped on the fish tail and some frogs which have got webbed feet; so as to swim well. l The kids took turn to wear the costume. However, Chun Kit’s father only shared the jacket and the flippers. He didn’t bring the costume. So, the kids asked me a few questions which I can’t answer. Thus, we decided to invite Chun Kit’s father for a sharing session. c) Letter writing. l We brainstormed the contents together. The 6 years-old are required to write the sentences. The contents are as follows: “ Dear Mr. Ng, How are you? Thank you for lending us your diving suit. Can you come and visit us? We want to know more about the ocean. What is in the ocean? Is there rubbish? We hope you can come. We love you. Thank you very much. From: Pomegranate class (30/03/2011)” l The 5 year-old kids draw pieces of picture to decorate the letter and our second submarine.

The Giant Octopus

Monday (04/04/2011) a) The Giant Octopus · It’s arm’s length could be until 7 meters long..wow! I brought in a measuring tape ad measured 7 m long and it’s almost from them whiteboard to the toilet length. However, when I measured the kid’s arm, it’s less than 1 meter. Its weight is about 200kg……which is equivalent to the weight of 4 adults! b) Protection · The kids thought of many ways of how an octopus protects itself. Not all octopus has got these features. i) They live I a de ad can squeeze through many cracks because it has no boes. ii) It can squeeze black ink (said Rei) iii) It can camouflage like Camellia (said Zhe Qing) iv) It can break off its arms just like a starfish, jellyfish, a crab, a lizard ad they can regrow slowly again. (said Xing Tog) v) It can mimic (some species) into a lionfish, an eel and some other forms. · Is the octopus clever? I asked the kids to think about what it can learn. Kids thought that mother octopus will eat its baby. That’s not true. I fact, they are one of the best animal parents. · We also leant about predator ad prey. The predator includes whales, sharks, birds, eels and humans. The preys include crabs, shells, shrimps, smaller octopuses, fish, and snails among others. c) Class craft · The kids wondered if we could have a Giant Octopus in the c class…….eeerrr…..of course! · Some helped me to cut the garbage plastic bag into strips while the others folded A4 paper into log rectangles, drew circles ad cut them. One cut produces 7 circles…….that amazed them. The they pasted the circles (suction cups) onto the octopus log arms with glue. We shall continue tomorrow.