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Discovering the Marine World
The children were full of smiles, and you could even feel the excitement and happiness that they experienced when they saw the animals projected to the wall. After this activity, we discussed that sea animals come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and colours and their appearance is often adapted to their specific habitat and lifestyle. For instance, fish have gills to extract oxygen from water, while marine mammals like whales, have lungs for breathing air at the surface. Some sea animals have specialised body parts for hunting or defense, like the tentacles of an octopus or the sonar of a dolphin. By exploring these aspects of sea animals, children gained a deeper understanding of the complexity of marine life.
We used of flashcards and stories that they understand that female turtles return to the same beaches where they were born to lay their eggs and they dig a hole in the sand using their flippers and deposit a clutch of eggs into the nest to incubate. Additionally, we had a group investigation and found out that turtles are reptiles and they can be found in most parts of the world, and live either on land or in water. Most species of turtles are need to come to the surface to breathe, with one exception – the sea turtle. The sea turtles have evolved unique adaptations that allow them to extract oxygen from the water and stay submerged and hold their breathe for longer periods of time while diving for food or evading predators.
One of the children mentioned that he has seen a fish tank sitting in the hall and there was a turtle sleeping there. So, we decided to offer a very special opportunity for all the children to interact closely with the turtle and everyone had a unique experience where they could gently touch and hold the small turtle under supervision. It allowed the children to feel the texture of the shell and the size and the weight of a turtle. The children were interested in observing the turtle’s behaviour how it moves and how they respond to the environment. Meanwhile, we introduced the different parts of a turtle like shell, head, nostril, eye, flippers, etc to enrich their knowledge as well as their vocabulary.
It was nice to see that all the children were very gentle and treated the turtle with respect. Through this activity, the children not only gained the knowledge and appreciation for sea life, but also developed their empathy for caring for marine animals.
Overall, this innovative lesson was a resounding success, promoting the children’s creativity, problem-solving skills, independence, cooperation skills, communication, hand-eye coordination, and fine-motor skills while also instilling a sense of wonder and respect for the natural world.
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