Jellyfish Lapbook

Habitat/Where on the map

Jellyfish are found in every ocean in the world. Where there's salt water—from icy polar seas to tropical Pacific shores—there are jellyfish. Complete: Finding Jellies Matchbook

Classification

Jellyfish belong to a group of soft, boneless sea animals called cnidarians (neye-DAYR-ee-uhns), one of the most common groups of sea animals. Other animals that belong to this family include sea anemones, corals, sea fans, and freshwater hydras. Complete: Is a Jellyfish a Fish? mini-book

Anatomy

Jellyfish are simple creatures that come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. A jellyfish is little more than a stomach surrounded by a bell-shaped body. They have no bones, ears, eyes, hearts or brains! And because they are invertebrates, which means they’re animals that lack backbones, their bodies are like jelly. That’s how they got their name!

They also don’t have any lungs or gills. They absorb oxygen through their skins instead.

Fast fact – some Jellyfish have light sensors called eye spots. These sense sunlight coming through the water’s surface. They help jellyfish determine which direction is up!

Its mouth is located at the center of the bell’s underside.

Some jellyfish may have four to eight frilly oral arms. These surround a jellyfish’s mouth and digestive tube which look like a short tube hanging down from the center of its body.

Some also have tentacles, which hang down from their bells.

Complete: Anatomy Shutterfold

The smallest jellyfish are much less than one inch wide, about the size of a fingernail. The largest jellyfish can grow to eight feet across and more than 100 feet long. Fast fact – the arctic lion’s mane jellyfish is the world’s largest jellyfish. Its tentacles make it the longest animal in the sea. The largest one on records was 120 feet long. That’s longer than two school buses.

Complete: Size Fan

Fast fact – A jellyfish’s body is about 95% water. If jellyfish is taken out of the water, it quickly dries up and dies.

Fast fact – Some jellyfish can produce light by a process called bioluminescence, just like fireflies. This enables them to communicate in the dark, either at night or deep beneath the sea.

Lifecycle

Jellyfish have a complicated life cycle and go through several stages before becoming adults.

Most jellyfish begin life in an egg. After a few days, the egg develops into a tiny animal called a planula. It looks like a worm and is transparent. It can swim but mostly just floats. After a few days or weeks, the planula changes into a tub- like creature called a polyp and sinks to the bottom of the water. A polyp has a mouth and tentacles but cannot swim. It’s stuck to the ocean floor. It eats by stinging animals that swim nearby. Small saucer-shaped disks begin to grow from the polyp. After a few weeks or months, a polyp has many disks which eventually break off. The disks float around for about a week. By the end of the week, each disk becomes a medusa, which is another name for an adult jellyfish.

Complete: Lifecycle Strips

Fast fact- Most jellyfish only live to be about a year old.

Locomotion

Jellyfish can expand and contract their fluid bodies to move. This looks like an umbrella opening and closing. When a jellyfish contracts its body, the water inside it is forced out. This moves the jellyfish forward. The process is a simple

form of jet propulsion. Even with this skill, they’re not very efficient swimmers. Instead, water currents and strong winds usually determine their path and many find themselves washed up on beaches.

Complete: On the Move Simple Fold

Fast fact – Unlike fish, jellyfish don’t have swim bladders to keep them afloat. If a jellyfish stops pumping its body, it sinks to the bottom of the ocean.

Diet

Most jellyfish are carnivores but they don’t chase their prey. Instead, they wait for small animals to swim or draft into their tentacles. They feed mostly on a variety of small animals like zooplankton, comb jellies, small fish and occasionally other jellyfish.

Complete: What's for Dinner? Matchbook

Jellyfish tentacles are well equipped for hunting food. They contain stinging cells that explode when they come into contact with prey. Then, the stinging cells shoot tiny threads of toxins into the animal. This paralyzes their prey.

Complete: Hunting with Tentacles Simple Fold

One type of jellyfish, called the Cassiopea or upside-down jellyfish, doesn’t hunt at all. Instead it grows lots of very small plants called algae inside its transparent body. The algae make food for the jellyfish from sunlight, using the process called photosynthesis.

Predators/Defense

For jellyfish, the oceans are very dangerous. Many animals, which are not affected by their stings and have strong mouths and stomachs, like to eat jellyfish. These include spadefish, sunfish, large sea snails, sea turtles, crabs and some birds. Even some humans like to eat jellyfish!

Complete: Who Wants to Eat a Jellyfish? T-book

Some jellyfish use their stinging tentacles to keep them from getting eaten. Box jellyfish are some of the deadliest creatures in the world, killing more people than sharks! If a human is stung by one of these jellyfish, he or she may die within minutes.

Sometimes, instead of swimming alone, jellyfish form groups called smacks. This increases their chances of defending themselves and escaping.

Jellyfish also use their transparency to hide from predators. Even the colorful kinds of jellyfish are transparent, or clear like glass. This quality makes them difficult to se in the water. This gives them some defense from enemies because jellyfish have few places to hide.

Complete: Protection Tri-fold

Vocabulary

Bell – the umbrella-shaped body of a jellyfish

Bioluminescence- a chemical reaction that causes an organism to glow

Carnivore – meat-eating animal

Colony – a group of animals of one kind living together

Current – the flow and movement of a large body of water

Gelatinous – jellylike

Invertebrate – an animal with no backbone

Paralyze – to make unable to move

Predator – an animal that eats other animals

Propulsion – something that drives forward or adds speed to an object

Smack – group of jellyfish

Tentacle – a long, slender body part that grows around the mouth or head of some animals

Toxin – a substance that is harmful

Transparent – clear like glass

Tropical – an area on Earth where temperatures are warm

Play a game with the vocabulary lotto boards! Store boards in a pocket on the back of your lapbook, if desired.

Books

Jellyfish by Lloyd G. Douglas

Jellyfish by Deborah Coldiron

Jellyfish : Animals With a Deadly Touch by Eulalia Garcia

Jellyfish by Elaine Landau

Jellyfish by Leighton Taylor

Discovering Jellyfish by Miranda MacQuitty

Scary Creature – Jellyfish by Gerard Cheshire

Night of the Moonjellies by Mark Shasha

Materials and information may be used for your own personal and school use. Material may not be used for resale or shared electronically.

Cut each book out as one piece. Fold matchbook style.

What’s for Dinner?Finding Jellies

Materials and informaon may be used for your own personal and school use. Material may not be used for resale or shared electronically.

Is a Jellyfish a

Fish?

Family Name

Others in the Family

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Cut out book as one piece. Fold sides to the front. Fold top ap (anatomy) and glue down.

Large

Small

PRINT ON CARDSTOCK. Cut out pieces. Write about jellysh sizes on the pieces. Stack together with cov-er on top and secure with a brad.

Huntin

g with

Tent

acle

s

Protection From

Predators

Cut book out as one piece. Fold in half.

Cut book out as one piece. Fold le side in. Fold right side in so that it is on the cover. On the inside of the book write about three dierent ways that jellies defend themselves.

On the

Move

Cut out book as one piece. Fold in half.

Materials and informaon may be used for your own personal and school use. Material may not be used for resale or shared electronically.

Cut books out on solid lines; fold on doed lines.

Fast Fact

Fast Fact

Fast Fact

Fast Fact

Cut out as one piece. Fold left side in. Fold right side in. Fold top dow

n.

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II lleeaarrnneedd

Cut out the pieces. Complete information. Stack pages together with cover on top and staple.

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TTiittllee::

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VOCA

BULA

RY LOTTO

Gelatinous

Smack

Invertebrate

Paralyze

Fragile

Predator FREE SPACE

Propulsion

Carnivore

Tentacle

Colony

Toxin

Transparent

Bell

Bioluminescence

Tropical

PR

INT P

AG

ES on CA

RD

STOC

K. O

ne person should take turns calling out word definitions The players should cover their boards w

ith markers

(use buttons, paper squares, or anything else you can think of!) each time they hear a definition that m

atches a word found on their board.

Winner: Before each gam

e decide how to determ

ine the winner (four in a horizontal row

, four in a vertical row, or four corners).

VOCA

BULA

RY LOTTO

Gelatinous

Smack

Invertebrate

Fragile

Predator

Propulsion

Carnivore

Tentacle Transparent

Toxin

Colony

Bell

Bioluminescence

Tropical

Paralyze

FREE SPACE

VOCA

BULA

RY LOTTO

Gelatinous

Smack

Invertebrate

Fragile Predator

Propulsion

Carnivore

Tentacle Transparent

Toxin

Colony Bell

Bioluminescence

Tropical

Paralyze

FREE SPACE

VOCA

BULA

RY LOTTO

Gelatinous

Smack

Invertebrate

Fragile

Predator

Propulsion

Carnivore

Tentacle Transparent

Toxin

Colony

Bell

Bioluminescence

Tropical

Paralyze

FREE SPACE

Direcons: Cut out the cover (on this page). Cut out each rectangle (solid black lines). Fold like a hotdog on center gray line. Cut doed gray lines. Repeat steps w

ith each rectangle. Stack rectangles together (with the cover on top) and staple on the le side w

here indicated. You w

ill be able to li the aps of each strip up. You should also be able to ip in your book from strip to strip. Cut/paste the inform

aon under the appropriate strips.

lifecycle

Most jellyfish begin life in an egg.

After a few

days, the egg d

evelops into a tiny anim

al called a planula. It now

looks like a transparent w

orm floating along in the w

ater.

After a few

days or w

eeks, the planula changes into a tube-like creature called

a polyp and sinks

to the bottom of the w

ater. It is stuck on the ocean floor. Sm

all saucer-shaped disks begin to

grow from

the polyp. A

fter a few w

eeks or months,

a polyp has many d

isks which eventually break off.

The disks float around for about a w

eek.

Each disk from

the polyp becom

es a med

usa, w

hich is another name for an ad

ult jellyfish.

Jellyf sh

egg

Planula

Polyp

Medusa