CHAPTER 1
My Home is an Ecosystem
Theme One: My Home is an Ecosystem
In this chapter we explore the wonder of the natural world in our homes and gardens, and consider some of the creatures who share our living spaces, and how they survive.
In today’s information society we have become used to seeing images of exotic creatures in far flung places, and we often think of the “natural world” as something that is far away from us. It is easy to overlook the fact that nature is all around us. There are lots of fascinating creatures that share our homes and gardens with us. This and the next chapter will encourage children to understand, appreciate, value and protect and conserve the flora and fauna right on their own doorstep and in their own back gardens.
Environmental Values
- Appreciation: Appreciation of the flora and fauna at home.
- Conservation: Conserving creatures in the home environment.
- Protection and enhancement: Valuing biodiversity in the home environment.
A Suggested Lesson Plan
1 Introduce the theme
- How can we learn to understand and appreciate nature in and around our own homes?
2 Vocabulary
- The teacher ensures that the children understand the words given.
3 The story
- The teacher shows the illustration and reads the story.
4 Talking about the story
- The teacher uses some of the questions and discussion points given, stimulating the children to talk about the story/theme.
5 Learning activities
- The story activities encourage listening and discussion skills. Follow-up activities introduce environmental appreciation and understanding of the natural world in a home environment context. For environmental education, these activities encourage environmental values (e.g. appreciation/respect for the natural world), environmental concepts (e.g. biodiversity), and good environmental behaviour. In terms of personal development they also encourage listening skills, self-confidence and understanding the differences of others (by others we mean different species as well as people from other races, cultures or religions who might be different from ourselves).
1 INTRODUCE THE THEME
- Children are aware of the conservation issues affecting endangered species such as tigers, whales, pandas, turtles, etc., and may be aware of the ecosystems they live in. But in every home there are mini ecosystems to be explored. How many creatures share our living spaces – the home, garden, street and neighbourhood?
- Which creatures share our living spaces?
- How do they interact with us, each other and with other species?
- What do we mean by biodiversity? Why do we value it?
- Understanding family groups in other species.
- Understanding the basic principles of life-cycles, food chains, and predator/prey relationships.
- How can we develop tolerance of others?
- How can we learn to confront our fears?
2 VOCABULARY
Story vocabulary
| Shrieked | – | high-pitched scream |
| Dashing | – | moving fast |
| Patiently | – | able to wait |
| Pretend | – | to make believe |
| Mottled | – | marked with smears of colour |
| Abdomen | – | stomach or lower body |
| Scuttled | – | scurried along |
| Bolted | – | ran fast |
| Funnel | – | a tube or tube-like structure |
| Retrieved | – | found and brought back |
| Spiderling | – | a baby spider |
Associated environmental vocabulary
| Predator/prey relationship | – | the relationship between animals that hunt and those that are hunted |
| Micro ecosystem | – | a small or mini ecosystem |
| Food chain | – | the process of living on a smaller or weaker animal or plant in an ongoing chain |
3 ILLUSTRATION AND STORY
Lottie and Lily Longlegs
Lottie and Lily Longlegs
Lottie was tidying her bedroom, and bent down to move a small pile of magazines from underneath her bed. Suddenly a spider darted out, and ran towards Lottie. She shrieked, dropped the magazines, and leapt onto her bed.
“Mum, Mum. Come quick!” she yelled at the top of her lungs.
Lottie’s Mum suddenly appeared at the door, out of breath from dashing up the stairs, to find out what all the fuss was about.
“There! It’s over there.” Lottie pointed to the bookcase. “It’s gone under there.”
“What has, Lottie? What’s gone under there?” her Mum asked.
“A spider. It was big and fat and huge. And hairy. It’s horrible and yucky. You have to get rid of it.”
Lottie’s Mum smiled patiently. “Lottie, calm down. It’s only a tiny spider. You’re much bigger than she is and she can’t hurt you,” she said. “Stay there while I go and fetch a glass.”
Lottie stayed on her bed, watching the bookcase for any sign of movement. Soon her Mum reappeared carrying a glass and a piece of white card.
“It’s OK, sweetheart. We’ll just collect her up into this glass and then put her out in the garden.”
“But how do you know it’s a girl?” asked Lottie.
“I don’t, but we can pretend it’s a girl. Shall we give her a name?”
Lottie wasn’t too sure this was a good idea. She was frightened of spiders, but she agreed anyway. “OK,” she said, “we could call her Lily Longlegs.”
“OK. Lily Longlegs it is. Come on, Lily, let’s move you outside,” said her Mum.
Carefully placing the glass over the spider, and then sliding the piece of card underneath, Lottie’s Mum was able to capture Lily without harming her. Once Lottie realised that Lily couldn’t escape so easily, she stood closer so that she could peer into the glass. The spider had two parts to its body. The front part, which had all eight legs attached to it, was the biggest part. The smaller part of the spider’s body was brown with a pretty, mottled yellow pattern.
“The smaller part is its abdomen,” said Lottie’s Mum.
“Look Mum, one of her front legs is shorter than the others,” said Lottie.
“Oh yes, so it is. But she seems OK. Let’s go and put her out in the garden.”
They went out into the front garden and very gently, Lottie’s Mum lowered the glass, removed the cardboard and released the spider into the grass. She scuttled off quickly and was soon lost among the blades of grass and bright summer flowers.
Later that evening as they were all watching television, and just before her bedtime, Lottie’s eye was caught by a quick movement by the side of the sofa. Suddenly, a large spider bolted out from under the sofa, and ran across the carpet towards the fireplace. Lottie again shrieked, and pulled her feet off the floor. The spider managed to reach the corner of the fireplace, and sat still for a while. Lottie’s Mum went into the kitchen and for the second time came back with a glass and a piece of white card. They repeated the exercise of carefully capturing the spider in the glass, before putting it outside in the garden.
“Oooh, look Mum,” said Lottie. “This one’s also got a shorter front leg. Do you think it could be Lily?”
“It could be,” said her Mum. “It seems a shame to put her back outside again in the cold. And spiders do help to get rid of the flies. Why don’t we let her stay this time?”
“Oh, no,” said Lottie. “You have to put her outside. She might crawl on me in the night, and I wouldn’t like that.” Lottie shivered at the thought of a spider crawling on her.
Her mother took the spider outside and let it go at the bottom of the garden.
The next morning Lottie was still sleepy. She’d dreamt about Lily Longlegs who was very sad and cold outside in the garden, and sat on her windowsill wanting to be let back in where it was safe and warm. Lottie sat up, stretched and yawned, and just as she was about to get out of bed she heard her Mum calling her from the bathroom.
“Lottie. Come quick. I think Lily Longlegs is back again.”
Lottie rushed into the bathroom and sure enough, there was a large spider in the bath which seemed to have one front leg a lot shorter than all the others.
“What do you think we should do?” asked her Mum. “She seems very determined to keep coming back...
