This term we are looking at the concept of change - it's a great one as we come to the end of the year, as some will naturally be a little anxious about changes as one year finishes and another begins. Hopefully by looking at change all around us in different contexts, children will have a chance to process that change is part of life, and along the way learn a few coping strategies if needed.
We started the term by looking at animals and change - metamorphosis, changing colours, and even looking at some cephalopods (octopus etc) that can change their skin texture!
I asked children to list as many different animals as they could think of. If they want to know more about how many animal species are in the world then Wonderopolis has a great page about this with information and activity ideas to take learning further.
We did a sorting and matching activity - trying to match pictures of young with adult animals. Kids were fascinated (and some disgusted!) by flounder / flat fish and how their eyes move to one side of their body as they become adults and go from an upright juvenile fish to an adult flounder.
We watched a video about amazing cephalopods (Octopus, squid, cuttlefish) and how they can change their colour, shape and sometimes even their texture. We thought about why they make these changes.
Some students created pipecleaner critters, some used the letters in the word METAMORPHOSIS to make words (how many can you find?), some imagined they could morph into any animal and gave reasons for why they would choose a particular animal, some researched different animals etc.
