Look at this pond food chain. Can you identify the producer and the consumer?

Lesson 7 : Understanding how pollution can affect a habitat

Algae tadpole fish stork

There are many plants and animals living in a pond habitat, such as: frog, tadpole, newt, toad, dragon fly, may fly, water boatman, water beetle, pond snail, pond skater, pond weed, water lily, bulrushes etc.

Unfortunately, many pond habitats are polluted. Can you identify any polluting elements in these images?

Pollution is anything that makes the water or land dirty and unhealthy.

The water in a pond must remain clean in order to provide a healthy habitat. The most noticeable kind of pollution is the dumping of rubbish – anything from old cars and drink cans to bikes and bottles have been found cluttering up ponds. Another very serious threat to ponds is chemical pollution . Fields are sprayed with pesticides to rid the crops of pests. However, rain often washes the pesticides into nearby ponds, poisoning some of the animals living there.

Think about the food chain: if plants die, then animals don’t have food to eat and die too. Animals are interdependent (they depend on each other to survive): no algae means tadpoles don’t have food to eat and die. If plants and tadpoles die, then fish don’t have food to eat and die. If fish die, then storks don’t have food to eat and die too.

We can all help ponds and their wildlife in some way.

Save water - Fresh and clean water is a precious resource. Don't waste it!

Don't use chemicals in your garden - ask your parents if you can pull the weeds in the yard so they don't need to use weed killer

Always pick up your rubbish!

Can you think of other ways to prevent water pollution and keep ponds healthy?

Activity 1: Design a poster trying to convince people not to dump rubbish into water and save the pond habitats.

Lesson 8: Animals and plants found in the ocean habitat

Oceans contain the greatest diversity of life on Earth. Do you remember the names of the oceans?

Can you think of any plants and animals that live under water?

Over 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, and nearly all of that is saltwater from oceans and seas. Ocean habitats have water that contains a lot of salt – we call it saltwater. Creatures that live in ocean habitats can breathe underwater or can hold their breath for a long time and just come up to the surface every now and then for air. Can you think of an animal that can live both on land and under water?

These are some of the animals that live in oceans: angel fish, clown fish, puffer fish, dolphin, jelly fish, octopus, sea turtle, sea horse, shark, whale.

Click on the link to find more about the ocean habitat.

https://www.thesch

oolrun.com/homew

ork-help/marine-

habitats puffer fish

Some ocean plants are seaweeds, sea grasses, and mangroves.

Diet: small crabs, fish, turtles. They are carnivores.

Diet: plankton (tiny plants), shrimps. They are omnivores.

Diet: mussels, oysters, algae, seagrass. They are omnivores.

Diet: algae, worms. They are omnivores.

Diet: small fish. They are carnivores.

Diet: fish, shrimps, squids. They are carnivores.

Diet: fish, shrimps, squids. They are carnivores.

Activity 2: Draw /print an image showing the ocean habitat and write a short paragraph describing the image. Can you include a food chain?

Algae seahorse octopus

saltwater , angel fish, clown fish, puffer fish, dolphin, jelly fish, octopus, sea turtle, sea horse, shark, whale, seagrass, seaweed, plankton, omnivores, carnivores

Word bank:

Lesson 9: Understanding how plastic pollution is affecting our oceans

Can you name one of the major things causing pond pollution?

Unfortunately, pollution affects not only ponds, but water in general, including seas and oceans. This has a big impact on the wildlife. Animals are endangered not only because they lose their habitat, but also because they consume harmful substances.

One of the main causes of ocean pollution is plastic pollution.

What is plastic pollution? It’s plastic where it shouldn’t be. It’s in the sea and on the beach and it’s causing harm. We are using more plastic than ever because it’s durable and cheap to produce. About 8 million pieces of plastic are entering the oceans every single day.

How does it get in the ocean? Two-thirds of it comes straight from land: litter being left on the beach or washed down rivers. The remainder is lost at sea such as containers going overboard or lost fishing gear.

How long does it last? As we know, plastic is strong and durable making it extremely useful, however that also means it never really breaks down. A plastic bottle can last for 450 years in the ocean environment, slowly fragmenting into smaller and smaller pieces, but never truly going away. This means that every piece of plastic that has ever been produced is still with us in some form. Yuck!

What harm does plastic pollution do to the ocean habitat? For wildlife such as fish, dolphins, seabirds and seals it can be deadly as they become entangled or mistake it for food.

Does it affect us? 1 in 3 fish caught contain plastic, so when we eat fish we might eat small pieces of plastic which are not healthy. Moreover, the beach is where we go to connect with nature and it’s not the same if it’s covered in plastic. Even if we don’t eat fish or go to the beach, all of us breathe!70% of oxygen is produced by marine plants, so we need to take care of it!

Activity 3: Make a list of things you can do in order to stop plastic pollution.

Don’t forget to finish all the activities and have them ready for the Zoom session.