snails Archives - Blouberg International School

by trindadecamara10th February 2022 News0 comments

Habitats

A habitat is a place where an animal lives. It provides food, water and shelter. There are many different types of habitats around the world from forests to grasslands and from mountain slopes to deserts. Different habitats are home to different animals. They live well together because they all do things to help keep the whole habitat healthy and in balance.

This week, the Year 4’s have been learning all about habitats and the adaptations of animals for their habitats.

Have you ever wondered what the purpose of a cockroach is? We often see them as dirty pests that infest the spaces they live in. Animals like cockroaches are really important in a habitat—they eat the dead plants and recycle the nutrients back into the soil, which helps the plants to grow.

The Year 4 students were curious about animals in their own habitats and they decided to observe snails. To fulfil this curiosity we designed a choice tray. We planned how we will test some snails to see where they like to be most in the environment. We placed 4 variables on each corner of the choice tray, twigs, leaves, sand and stone. We observed where the snails ventured towards, over a half an hour period, and noted our findings.

There were interesting findings across the year group in the different classrooms. One conclusion we could all agree on- if the environment changed, animals can sometimes change the way they behave.

Well done to our budding scientists!

Nadia Mahomed

Year 4 Teacher

by gemayel14th February 2019 News0 comments

Sailing through Science

In Science this term the Year 4’s have been learning about habitats and the ways animals adapt to their environments.

They went on to create their very own habitats for some slimy friends. Snails sailed into our classrooms and we observed as they adapted to their new found homes and munched on some delicious leaves.

We took our time investigating which leaves the snails preferred to eat, there were many different predictions and some interesting results. The snails enjoyed a comfortable sleepover in the classrooms, with a few plotting a prison break and fleeing their ‘hotels’. The following morning, we were able to come to a few conclusions regarding a snail’s appetite.

The Year 4’s thoroughly enjoyed having these little visitors in class and observing how different animals adapt to different environments. They were able to see how each animal is weird and wonderful in their own way and that even though snails are very slow, with a little perseverance they can complete any task!