Arbor Day 2010

In celebration of Arbor Day, both AM PreK classes got together to plant our very own tree :) This was a very good learning experience and fun for us all! Enjoy the photos :)

Here are both PreK PM classes planting their plant :)

Maracas && Whales

Here are some photos of the children making some maracas out of water bottles. These came out really nice :) && some photos of them painting some whales! Enjoy :)

Jellyfish

Jellyfish Facts;
The Jellyfish is a unique kind of marine life. It stands out from other fish due to its shape and other attributes. Here are some facts about Jellyfish.

Jellyfish belong to the Scyphozoan class of invertebrates.Not all jellyfish can be termed as being 'fish'. Their class name comes from the Greek name 'skyphos', which means a drinking cup.

Jellyfish is present and found in every ocean in the world. The lifetime of a jellyfish is at the most three or six months.They have two body forms through their life cycle - the polyp stage and the medusa stage. In the polyp stage, they are in the form of a sessile stalk with their mouth and tentacle facing upwards. In this stage, they catch passing food. The second stage of the jellyfish' body structure is more popular. During this stage, they have an umbrella shaped body called the bell.

This body structure is known as the medusa and tentacles of the jellyfish hang from the border of the bell. The body of a jellyfish is made up of almost 90 to 94% water.

Jellyfish are made up of an epidermis, gastrodermis and mesoglea.Jellyfish do not have a central nervous system,a circulatory system, respiratory system, or a osmoregulatory system. They have an incomplete digestive system and therefore use the same orifice for intake of food and expulsion of waste materials.

The jellyfish doesn't have a brain or other sensory organs. The jellyfish have small sensory organs on their around its bell. These sensory organs are known as rhopalia. Therefore, the jellyfish uses its rhopalia and nervous system to identify light and odor. The jellyfish use their 'nerve net' to detect the touch of another organism. This type of simple nervous system is found at the epidermis of the jellyfish.

A group of jellyfish is called a 'smack'. Jellyfish feed on small protozoa, large metazoa and other small fish in the sea. They generally trap these in their tentacles. Some jellyfish do not have tentacles at all.

The male jellyfish releases its sperm into the water, which then travels to the mouth of the female jellyfish. This procedure allows for the fertilization of the ova. Most jellyfish lodge the eggs in their oral armpits, forming a brood chamber for fertilization.

The tentacles of a jellyfish are an important defense mechanism. Each tentacle is covered with stinging cells, known as cnidocytes. Jellyfish do not have any water motion, or are not hydrodynamic. This hampers their swimming speeds. It is necessary for them to create water currents which reaches their tentacles. Jellyfish make this possible by opening and closing their bell shaped bodies in a rhythm.

Jellyfish swim by contracting and expanding their bodies. They do not have scales or shells. If exposed to the hot sun, they disappear, leaving only a circle of film. Jellyfish have a defense mechanism of oral arms or tentacles which are covered with organelles called nematocysts. These nematocysts are paired with a capsule which contains a coiled filament that stings. The filament unwinds and launches into the target, thereby injecting toxins upon contact by foreign bodies.

Jellyfish are generally not dangerous to humankind. However, some jellyfish can be very toxic, and cause deaths in humans. Recently, two deaths attributed to jellyfish were reported in Australia. However, a jellyfish sting is extremely painful and can also cause various allergies in humans.

Jellyfish lead a more difficult life in captivity as compared to other marine life. They cannot accustom themselves to the bound atmospheres in the aquariums, secondly, since Jellyfish cannot swim as fast as the fish, they require the natural currents of the water to transport themselves.

(http://www.buzzle.com/articles/facts-about-jellyfish.html)

Today we learned about Jellyfish! The kids had a lot of fun making their very own Jellyfish. Check them out :) We used colored tissue paper and glue to create a glossy look.

Starfish

We learned about starfish today! The children loved making their very own starfish. We used salt, liquid starch, and some paint to create our starfish. They feel like the real thing ;)

Starfish Facts;
1. Starfish are echinoderms (spiny skinned sea urchins). They are also known as sea stars and are not really fish despite the name been given to them. Starfish cannot swim, and they do not use gills to breathe.

2. There are over 2,000 species of starfish. All echinoderms have five-point radial symmetry, which means that their body plan has five sections arranged around a central disk.

3. Starfish are found in the deep blue sea of the ocean and shallow water as well. They are found in every ocean of the world. They are never found in fresh water.

4. Most starfish have a spiky shell which offers them protection. Depending on the species, a sea star's skin may feel leathery, or slightly prickly. This tough covering on their upper side is made up of plates of calcium carbonate with tiny spines on their surface. A sea star's spines are used for protection from predators, which include fish, sea otters and birds. Starfish come in a variety of colors and have many different types of patterns.

5. While the five-armed varieties of sea star are the most well known, not all sea stars have 5 arms. Some have many more. Take the sun star for instance, which has up to 40 arms. The Coscinasterias Calamaria also known as the eleven-armed sea star has an armspread that can go up to 30 cm. As the name suggests, it does have eleven arms but there are times when the number can go up to 14.

6. Amazingly, sea stars can regenerate lost arms. This is useful if the sea star is threatened by a predator. The starfish can drop an arm to get away. Sea stars house most of their vital organs in their arms, so some can even regenerate an entirely new sea star from just one arm and a portion of the star's central disc. It takes almost a year for this to happen.

7. Starfish have hundreds of tiny projections known as tube feet on the underside of their body. The tube feet allow the starfish to move along the ocean bottom and open upon the scallops and clams they hunt for food.

8. The starfish has two stomachs. The cardiac stomach eats the food outside the starfish’s body. When the cardiac stomach comes back into the body, the food in it is transferred to the pyloric stomach. After the tube feet open the shell of its prey, the cardiac stomach is extended into the shell to pull the food inside. The tube feet play an important role in helping the starfish to procure its food. The tube feet are used to open up the oysters or clams. Then the stomach is extended into the shell to pull the food inside. They prey on bivalves like mussels and clams, as well as small fish, snails, and barnacles.

9. Instead of blood, sea stars have a water vascular system, in which the sea star pumps sea water through its sieve plate, or madreporite, into its tube feet to extend them. Muscles within the tube feet retract them.

10. The starfish have microscopic eyes at the end of each arm; this enables the starfish to view movement and differentiate between light and dark. They don’t, however, see much detail.

(http://www.kidskonnect.com/subject-index/13-animals/52-starfish.html)

Fishy Fish

Today the kids made some fish! They had a lot of fun doing these :)

These are what we used to create their fish [rubber fish]

Corals

Today we've learned about all the different kinds of corals there are under the sea. The children were very interested in knowing all the facts of these pretty plant looking like creatures of the sea.

Facts about Corals;

• Corals are the exoskeleton of sea animals called polyps. When coral polyps die they leave behind a hard, stony structure that over time build up to form a coral reef.
• Coral polyps, like jellyfish and anemones, use their arm-like tentacles to catch food and feed their small mouth located in the center.
• Corals come in many shapes. They can be shaped like domes, organ pipes and trees.
• Corals are transparent and don't have any color at all. It is the alga, called zooxanthellae, that gives coral its color.
• Coral polyps need zooxanthellae to survive. Zooxanthellae, like all plants, takes in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen during the process known as photosynthesis. For polyps, the oxygen is sugar.
• When coral is stressed it expels the zooxanthellae giving up its color and an important source of food. This phenomenon is called chloral bleaching.
• Coral polyps, one of the smallest animals in the world, make the only natural formation visible from outer space.

Here they each painted a different kind of coral to add to our ocean outside of our classroom :)

Ocean Week/Octopus

This week starts our Ocean Week[s]!! We are really excited about this week and next week! We will be learning all kinds of things about the ocean; from animals, parts of the animals, corals, sharks!, and so much more!!



Interesting Octopus Facts for Kids

• Octopuses are boneless creatures. They don't have a vertebral column, that is, they are invertebrates. The beak which is in the shape of a parrot beak, is the only hard structure in their body. Due to this reason, their bodies are extremely flexible and they can squeeze through incredibly small spaces.
• Life span of octopuses depends upon their type (species). It may vary from 6 months to a couple of years. The larger ones live longer than those that are smaller in size.
• Octopuses are bottom dwellers. However, as they hatch from the eggs, the young ones swim to the surface. After floating on the surface with the plankton's for about a month, they swim back to the sea bed.
• Octopuses may live in holes or crevices of rocks. Some of them make a protective area for themselves by piling up rocks. The small Atlantic pygmy octopus is known to inhabit an empty clam shell.
• Octopuses vary in size depending upon the species. While those found in tropical waters are small, octopuses of the colder seas are larger in size. The giant Pacific octopus is the largest amongst all the members of the group and are known to grow as large as 23 feet. However, most octopuses are smaller in size. Usually they grow up to 10 feet and weigh around 55 ponds. Females are smaller than the males.
• An interesting octopus fact is that these sea creatures have three hearts. Two hearts pump blood through the gills whereas the third one pumps blood through rest of the body.
• The color of octopus blood is blue.
• The octopus is a predator. It hunts at night. Its favorite food are crabs, mollusks and crayfish.
• Octopuses are stealth hunters. They change their color to merge with the surroundings and wait for the prey to pass by. As soon as the prey is close within reach, the octopus grabs it with its long arms. It then secretes a nerve poison that stuns the prey. Octopus venom is poisonous and in some cases it can be fatal for human beings as well.
• Octopuses are preyed upon by sharks, dolphins, morays and conger eels.
• One of the interesting octopus facts for children is that these invertebrates can be kept as pets. However, keeping an octopus as a pet is difficult as these creatures have been reported to have escaped from supposedly secure tanks due to their intelligence and flexible bodies.
• These eight legged creatures have highly developed sense of sight that helps them to hunt efficiently in the low light levels of the deep waters. They also have an excellent sense of touch. Octopuses have sensory receptors at the bottom of their suckers that enable them to "taste" whatever they touch. They are, however, deaf.
• Male octopuses die within a few months of mating. However, males of larger species live longer. Female octopuses die soon after their eggs hatch.
• The most remarkable octopus fact is that they have a number of defense mechanisms. They can change the color of their body to merge with the surrounding that helps them to stay invisible from prey or predators. The first instinct of an octopus, when threatened, is to flee. Octopuses are known to eject a cloud of black ink when attacked by a predator. Sometimes they may also shed an arm to escape a predator. The lost arm regrows in some time.

(http://www.buzzle.com/articles/octopus-facts-for-kids.html)




The kiddos made some octopuses today :) They had to put, in numerical order, the tentacles of the octopus and add tissue paper balls on each number of dots.

Earth

We will be learning about our planet Earth this week. We will discuss about how to protect our Earth, how to recycle & reuse, and how we can help at home to clean up & take care of our Earth. Getting us geared up for Earth Day on April 22nd!


Here are some photos of this week's family project which was to make a animal habitat to show how if we don't clean our Earth or simply take care of it, this it what will happen to our animals. You all did such a great job!