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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