A Snail's Trail: A little visit to ILM

When I had brought Bubbles the guinea pig to class, I had felt the tenderness, the curiosity and the infinite kindness of my ILM tiny tots. And I still get a few questions about him. So it really wasn't a surprise when this Monday a little visitor came a knocking on our window, even though it was uninvited, the children gave it just as warm a welcome.

IT WAS A SNAIL!

 

All was quiet and it was a typical Monday morning. Atif (an ILM student) was engrossed in his activity 'cleaning windows' when he gave a small shout and rushed to me. He had discovered something strange by the sill and wanted me to investigate the 'matter'. Upon looking I found it to be a snail. And quite a decent sized one at that. We the adults were thrilled and welcomed the distraction as it gave us the opportunity to delve into a live biology lesson.  At the end of which the children fell in love with the lovable mollusc and decided that, the snail would stay.  It would join our class fish, Bluie.

 

FUN FACTS:

As is the ILM tradition, I gathered the kids around and shared some interesting facts about our new friend complete with demonstrations to get their creative juices flowing. Some of the little ones came up with their very own astute observations as well.

1. What makes Snails move:I told them that snails move with the help of a sticky secretion and it was immediately identified to be 'glue'.

2. It's main sense is the "sense of touch":I touched its body and watched it retreat into its shell. Somebody quipped that it was 'going home' cause we were crowding around and making it nervous. It is true! Snails rely on their sense of touch to stay away from danger because despite having bright eyes their eyesight is poor.

3. Snails cannot hear and have poor eyesight too:We also made some noise but the lil fellow was unperturbed. Insight? Snails can't hear either.  And while they have eyes, their eyesight is really poor too.

4. And ofcourse, Snail moves really really slowlyWhen a few of the kids got a little impatient with its pace, I explained that the slow gait was what characterized a snail.

All in all I feel it was a pleasant diversion that also resulted in some learning! I leave you with cute images of our tryst with the latest ILM addition!