Chapter 9 was all about MOLLUSKS. Mollusks are soft slimy creatures with squishy bodies. Snails and slugs are mollusks we find in our yards! The kids thought it was fascinating that mollusks MAKE their shells! When we study Hermit Crabs, we learned that they live in the shells make by these Mollusks.
Mollusks are broken down into 3 GROUPS:
Mollusks are broken down into 3 GROUPS:
- Gastropods-these are snails that usually live inside a shell! They make a variety of shells in different shapes and colors. The study of shells is known as CONCHOLOGY! (except for the Nudibranch...these gastropods don't make shells at all but are very beautiful. They have many colors that glow int he dark with bioluminescents! So Amazing!
- Bivalves-These Mollusks have 2 shell halves. Mussels, scallops, and clams are examples of bivalves.
- Cephalopods-We'll study these in Chapter 10!
WEEK 1:
For Week one, we worked on our Notepage after reading the first half of the chapter prior to class. We passed around a variety of Mollusk shells for the kids to examine.
We then began our folder activity page. The kids matched up a variety of shells with a picture of each and a description to make a flap book of Mollusk shells.
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WEEK 2:
We began this week by filling out our 2nd notebook page on Mollusks. I passed out these paper rulers from Printable-Ruler.net and the kids were able to measure the rings on each shell they were passed and decide how old the shell was.
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Growth lines on Mollusks indicate age similar to the growth rings in trees. As the Mollusk grows, it builds another layer on to of the other layer, leaving rings. This shells shows growth lines indicating the Mollusk is 3 years of age. |
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Lots and lots of shells for this chapter! It was fun sorting through them all and trying to figure out what kind of Mollusk it was and then how old we thought it was. Having a nice variety is really helpful!
Since we don't live by the ocean, we asked families within the co-op and found many willing to bring in shells to share with our class for observation and our Conchology Research. We had about 3 gallon sized bags full of different shells and a bunch of large ones. It was nice having the large Conch Shells & listening for the ocean!
It was really fun to also see the many shells with holes in them that the kids all immediately said were eaten by a predator. Some predators will drill holes in the shells to eat Mollusks.
There are some neat videos on youtube on Mollusks!
Since we don't live by the ocean, we asked families within the co-op and found many willing to bring in shells to share with our class for observation and our Conchology Research. We had about 3 gallon sized bags full of different shells and a bunch of large ones. It was nice having the large Conch Shells & listening for the ocean!
It was really fun to also see the many shells with holes in them that the kids all immediately said were eaten by a predator. Some predators will drill holes in the shells to eat Mollusks.
There are some neat videos on youtube on Mollusks!
Happy Homeschooling!
