Aims | Outline | Curriculum Relevance | Background | Activities |
The Blue Dragon
Programme 6: Babies Grow
This programme aims to develop children's
understanding of life cycles, particularly the idea that when young
animals are born some of them need looking after by their parent.
This programme allows parallels to be drawn between the life cycles
of lions and elephants and that of humans.
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At the beginning of the programme we see the friends
walking across the African Plains. They are very hot and thirsty
and trying to cool off.
They find a tree to sleep under and Cinders goes off to explore.
She comes across a skeleton of an elephant. Unsure what it is, she
wakes the others up to show them. Later on a herd of elephants join
them. They have a baby called Effy and the elephants share with the
friends how they look after the calf. A lioness threatens them but
they manage to scare it off and eventually the friends leave the
herd and continue on their journey to find Cinders' mother.
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The programme
explores:
- different kinds of animals;
- the life cycle of different animals;
- the idea that many animal babies are dependent on
their parents.
There are many curriculum
links that can be made, for example:
- Geography – find out about living in Africa,
its climate, homes, people and animals.
- Mathematics – create a net for the cubes.
- Music – make sounds of the animals found in
Africa using different musical instruments.
- Art – look at patterns on animals and recreate
the patterns. Create patterns and camouflage an animal, for
example, stripes and zebras.
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Mammals usually give birth to live young, and
although they are fully formed they do require their parents to
look after them for a period of time after birth. This includes
gaining nourishment from the mother's milk and eventually being fed
a more adult diet. As the young grow they learn from their parents
and other family members how to feed and the social behaviour of
their group. Eventually the animal reaches maturity and reproduces,
continuing the life cycle. Not all mammal life cycles are the same;
some take only weeks to reach maturity whilst others, like the
elephant, take many years.
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Make a photograph album by creating a small booklet
(a personal photograph album) for each child, and allow them to put
their own photographs in it from when they were born to the present
day.
Help children to make a life-cycle cube, where one
aspect of an animal's life cycle is placed on each of the faces of
the cube.
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