LET’S LEARN ABOUT JELLYFISH
Sea Nettle
The Foundation for The Gator Nation
An Equal Opportunity Institution
What will we learn today?
• What is a jellyfish?
• Where do jellyfish live?
• What do jellyfish eat?
• How do jellyfish move?
Blue Button Jellyfish
LET’S READ!
Written & Illustrated by:
Louise Spilsbury
Let’s investigate
• Jellyfish body
• Lame brain or brainiac?
• Tangly tentacles
• Moving mouth
• Sense cells
Moon Jellyfish
courtesy of NOAA
Let’s create
Jellyfish in a bottle
•
One “upcycled” clear plastic bottle
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One “upcycled” clear plastic grocery bag
•
Thread
•
Food coloring
•
Scissors
•
Water
Step 1
• Flatten the bag.
• Cut off handles.
• Cut off bottom part.
• Cut along both sides to
split into two plastic
sheets.
• You will use only one
sheet.
Step 2 – the head
• From the center of the plastic sheet,
fold it like a tiny balloon to make
the head part.
• Tie it with the thread…
but not too tight!
• Leave a little hole in order to pour
some water in the head part later.
Mauve Jellyfish
courtesy of oceancaresolutions.com
Step 3 – the tentacles
• Cut from the edge up to the head part roughly. You’ll get
for about 8-10 tentacles.
• For each cut tentacle, cut again into 3-4 small strings – and
just cut off the remaining part.
• Trim randomly to make long and short tentacles.
When finished cutting, you’ll get something
like this:
The left pile is all the pieces that you cut off.
Step 4
• Put some water into small
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•
opening of head.
Don’t completely fill head– leave
some air.
Now think…
• What will the water make the
•
•
jellyfish do?
What will the air make the jellyfish
do?
Why?
Step 5
• Fill up your water bottle.
• Put your jellyfish in the
bottle.
• Add a few drops of food
coloring.
• Screw on cap and tighten
properly.
• Watch your jellyfish move!
Box Jellyfish
courtesy of Dr. Anders Garm
Let’s play!
Jellyfish Freeze Tag
• One player is the jellyfish.
• All others are fish trying to escape the jellyfish.
• Fish swim around and away from the jellyfish.
• If the jellyfish tags a fish, the fish must freeze because
jellyfish venom causes the fish to freeze.
• The fish is frozen until another fish tags them and they
are free to swim again.
Fun Jellyfish Facts
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Some live in fresh water.
Can be large and brightly colored.
Can often be transparent or translucent.
Some can be very hard to see,
nearly invisible to the human eye.
Jellyfish are not fish.
A group is a ‘bloom’, ‘swarm’ or ‘smack’.
Large blooms can feature over 100,000 jellyfish.
Jellyfish don’t have brains.
Use their tentacles to sting.
Most are harmless to humans but stings from
some species, such as the box jellyfish, can be
very painful and sometimes kill.
Jellyfish eat plankton.
Moon Jellyfish
Photo courtesy of
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
• My Jellyfish Story Page
•
Using information you learned today, create your story page.
•
Draw a picture of a jellyfish.
Complete the sentence.
The name of my jellyfish is
______________________________.
My jellyfish likes to eat
______________________________.
My jellyfish uses its
_______________________________
to eat.
RESOURCES
• http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals/creatur
efeature/jellyfish/
• http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/animals/jellyf
ish.html
• http://kids.discovery.com/tell-me/animals/fish/arejellyfish-really-fish
• http://bhoomplay.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/diy_jelly
fish_eng/ - step by step pictures of jellyfish experiment
Created by 4-H Youth Development Agents
• Whitney Cherry, Calhoun County
• Niki Crawson, Holmes County
• Julie Pigott Dillard, Washington County