Teach-Primary-18.3

48 | www.teachwire.net LOOKING AT NATURE Start this activity with the fact that plant life makes up approximately 80 per cent of life on our planet. Ask pupils if they think plants are important to us and why. Some pointers could be: • They release oxygen through their leaves for us to breathe. • Most of our medicines come from plants. • Plant life is the habitat of many animals, birds and insects. • People, animals, birds and insects use plants for food. • Plants are an important part of the food cycle e.g., the little bugs that live on plants are eaten by bigger animals. • People use plants as building materials. • Plants can provide shelter in the rain or on hot days. Next, take your class to a natural outdoors space where they can see different types of leaves, trees, seed pods, grasses etc. Let pupils investigate the different types of plant life they see, taking some examples back to the classroom where these can be looked at in more detail. Back in the classroom, pass the objects around, asking pupils to suggest words to describe how each one looks, feels, smells and sounds when you crinkle it or snap it. Write words on the board, with a column for each object. Take this further by asking pupils to Take it further Talking about the book After sharing the book with your class, talk about the following points: • If dinosaurs shared the planet with people today, how do you think we would get along? Would we have to make sure all the dinosaurs lived in their own area – far away from people? After all, we do share the planet with dangerous animals today; lions, alligators and bears are just some of the animals that can be dangerous if we get too close. Can the class think of any other examples? • The book talks about creatures evolving; does anyone know what is meant by the term evolution? One explanation could be: ‘Evolution is the name given to the way living things – animals, plants, birds and insects, change very gradually over many generations to become better suited to the place where they live’, e.g., many moths and bugs have evolved to look like the plants they live on – being hard to spot stops them being eaten. Another example here could be stick insects. Can the class think of any other examples? • Can the class think of any ways they could evolve that would make their life easier? Ask for some suggestions. Book topic on A5 paper. For anyone struggling to get started, explain how we often give creatures names that connect to something they look like, such as the blob fish or the hammerhead shark. Maybe they could imagine a creature that looks like a fruit or vegetable – a banana fish, or a mushroom shark. Ask pupils to think of a suitable name for their sea creature. Next, ask the children to carefully cut their creatures out before taking turns gluing them to the under-the-sea poster. Display the poster to encourage imaginative ideas for other activities. Class story For a bit of fun, close your eyes and without looking, point to three of the sea creatures on your undersea collage to use as characters in a class story. Maybe they could have one really long arm for reaching objects on high shelves, or super-bouncy kangaroo legs making it really quick to bounce to school. Encourage the children to be as imaginative as they can. Activities My evolved self Working on A4 paper, ask pupils to think about the ideas talked about in class for inspiration, before drawing a picture of their evolved self. Give some starter ideas for things to include here, such as skin that can magically camouflage, extra eyes, ears, and noses, and longer or stronger limbs. Maybe even lots more teeth! Ask volunteers to share their work with the class before handing out lined paper for pupils to write either a short description, a couple of sentences, or a few single words copied from the board (depending on age and ability) to accompany their drawing. Write interesting and relevant vocabulary on the board to help pupils along. Display completed work to showcase pupils’ ideas and imagination. Looking at fantastic sea creatures Before starting this activity, prepare a large poster-sized: a simple outline drawing of the bottom of the ocean – blue paper, seaweed, some shells, a few jellyfish shapes etc. Look again at the section of the book that shows the vibrant, complex undersea world. Talk about the different types of sea creature you can see. Have some extra images of unusual undersea creatures ready to show the class. Some good ones to introduce here are angler fish, sea angels and the flapjack octopus ( tinyurl.com/ tp-DeepSea ). Ask pupils to design their own fantastical sea creature, drawing it