SEA ANEMONE craft project

Sea anemones are the flowers of the sea. They are related to sea jellies, corals and many other cousins that have polyps with stinging cells. Anemones may live alone or in colonies. They have many colours. They feed by extending their tentacles into the water hoping to catch tiny animals passing by.

Many anemones in cooler southern (or northern) waters are harmless to people although when touched they feel sticky and cling to your finger. 

This anemone is a stylised version using a round plastic bowl and the bottoms of PET drink bottles.

What you need:

• ·        Round plastic soup/cereal/disposable bowl (alternatively you can use a paper bowl)
• ·        Plastic PET drink bottles
• ·        Paper (white)
• ·        Parchment paper (used in the kitchen for baking)
• ·        Iron & surface suitable to iron on
• ·        Scissors
• ·        Paper
• ·        pencil or pen
• ·        Craft glue
• ·        Acrylic paint

Safety:

·        An adult should use the iron

What to do:

·        Cut strips from the outside to the inner edge of the inside of the  bowl (you may like to make some curvy by repeatedly scrunching them up to add interest to the shape

·        Cut the bottoms off of a larger and smaller PET drink bottle

·        Put one of the PET bottoms (curved side down) on top of a piece of parchment paper on a soft safe ironing surface

·        Place a second piece of parchment paper over the top of the PET bottom

·        Keeping your hands well away from the iron, gently press the hot iron onto the parchment paper and swirl around gently, pulling the parchment paper off to check often to see that the sides have softened and bent downwards. (Be sure to replace the parchment paper back on top if you need to do more heating)

·        Let cool for a minute or two and repeat with the second PET bottom

·        If your PET drink bottles have a colour you might like to cut rings and soften the edges in the same way as you did with the bottoms  (See inner ring that is green in illustration)

·        To change the way the tentacles look you can use acrylic paint to make them look more like real tentacles 

 

Link to learn more about red Waratah anemones:
http://www.mesa.edu.au/AtoZ/rw_anemone.asp

To find activity online go to 

www.ausmepa.org.au/kiss and click on KISS Art

Ocean Heroes: The Plastics Problem -- 5 Gyres Institute

It is hard, sometimes, to understand why we need to be serious and dedicated to taking the plastic problem onboard. The following clip is a good quick overview that is very persuasive!




www.ausmepa.org.au

KIDS INVESTIGATING SEA SOLUTIONS (KISS)

AUSMEPA has launched a new flexible student website for helping our marine here environment. It will support a wide range of marine issues that are of ongoing interest as well as those that become topical over time. The main areas of interest will include action projects, habitats, marine creatures and other topics that spring up all the time.  

Mangroves, a marine and coastal issue that students and communities can relate to, have started off the new webpages. The values of mangroves are poorly understood and are far more valuable than people assume. Areas that would be covered:

• The importance of mangroves as habitat, fish resources, barrier to storms and tsunamis and a carbon sink.
• Why mangroves are threatened.
• What are mangroves and where they occur?
• Mangrove adaptations including examples of life cycles.
• How saltmarshes are associated with mangroves and their conservation.
• Animals dependant on mangroves including aquatic and are breathing animals.
• What is being done and what communities and schools are doing to conserve mangroves. 
• Community projects, organisations, links and references

This topic can be fitted into a number of areas in science and geography of the Australian Curriculum.

Art and craft activities 

At AUSMEPA we are well aware that implementing many learning styles gives students a better way to embed and communicate what they have learned and it can be lots of imaginative fun.

The new KISS webpages include art and craft activities here under the KISS Craft tab.

Current activities begin looking at elements related to denizens and habitats of the open ocean, coral reefs, rocky reefs, seagrass and wetlands.

www.ausmepa.org.au

Historic annoucement on Cash for Containers in NSW

www.ausmepa.org.au