Morah Katie: If an invertebrate is an animal without a backbone, what is a vertrebrate?

Ben: An animal with a backbone.

Noah: We have backbones.

Morah Katie: We do, what types of vertebrate animals live in the ocean?

Tori: Fish!

Morah Katie: Are there just a few fish?

Noah: Lots of fish, like the angler fish down deep!

Morah Katie: We will be learning about a few of the many fish.

Morah Katie: What happens if a fish swims near or into a sea anemone?

Kian: It gets sucked into its middle.

Morah Katie: Very true; Guess what? There is a fish which is safe from being eaten, in fact they work together to help each succeed.

Levi: The clown fish!

Morah Katie: Yes! Each clown fish chooses a sea anemone, and slowly builds a tolerance to it's zapping. This fish have a layer of goo or mucus which helps protect it. If it is protected, what can it do?

Dena: Swim to the anemone.

Morah Katie: Yes, the clown fish cleans up the sea anemone after it eats, eating any left over bits of food, and the sea anemone gives the clown fish a safe place to hide from bigger fish!

Noah: Oh it's like they are friends.

A clown fish has a distinct pattern, the most popular are orange, but they come in all colors.

All clown fish have 3 white stripes bordered by black stripes.

Kian: HEY! it's a clown fish!

Tu B'Shevat

Trees give us so much: shade, fruits, wood to build with.

To celebrate Tu B'Shevat, and to remind us of all the sweet kind things

we can do, we are creating a mitzvah tree.

We will transform our bare tree with the fruits of our mitzvahs.

Please be sure to check in each week to see how our tree is blooming with fruit.
We enjoyed fruits from Israel in honor of The New Year for Trees.

We enjoyed dates, figs, olives, raisins (for grapes), and crackers (for wheat).

Seahorses are very unique fish.

They don't look like fish.

They don't swim like fish.

Morah Katie: Seahorses do not swim well, so they like to wrap their tails around seaweed or coral.

Seahorses dads carry the fish eggs!

Morah Katie: Do other fish dads carry the eggs or is it just the seahorse?

Dena: One fish carries it on their head.

Morah Katie: Yes, the kurtis fish dads carry the eggs on top of their heads.

Kian: One puts it in their mouth!

Morah Katie: The tilapia daddy carries the eggs in his mouth.

We also know from the book, "Secret Seahorse" that they are good at camouflage. Why would a fish need to be camouflaged?

Dena: So a shark or whale don't eat them.

Pictures from the week