The Missing Link
Key Stage
1
The Missing Link is based on Attainment
Target two of the National Curriculum for Science and covers the sections on
environmental biology and basic human biology.
These notes are intended as a guide to the scientific content and can be
used for preparatory work. However we
aim to present the science in such a way that it becomes self-explanatory so
the performance can be used as an introduction to the topic.
We
begin with our heroine Georgie Lionheart and her Uncle 'Gerbil' Jones, the
famous adventurer. In his London home he
begins by sorting his animals.
THINGS THAT ARE LIVING AND THINGS
THAT HAVE NEVER BEEN ALIVE
By
asking certain questions one can decide whether something is living or has
never been alive. Georgie compares
herself to a book and with the help of the audience establishes that living
things move and eat. She then asks the
audience what else living things do. Do
they drink? do they grow? were they born? will they die? She explains that if you answer yes to these
questions you can be sure that you have a living thing.
'Gerbil'
has a catch phrase which he teaches the audience: food, water and exercise, that's what animals
need. This epithet sums up the basic
human requirements for survival.
CLASSIFYING ANIMALS
Once
Georgie has established the difference between animate and inanimate objects
'Gerbil' realises all his animals are living things and need to be sorted into
groups according to observable features.
You can choose any heading for a group, like number of legs, what they
eat, what colour they are or where they live but 'Gerbil' opts for 'number of
legs'. 'Gerbil' has a bat, a parrot, a
fish, a centipede, a spider and a turtle.
With the help of the audience Georgie sorts them into groups of 0 legs,
2 legs, 4 legs, 8 legs and lots of legs.
She then demonstrates that you can sort according to different features
and they are re-sorted into groups of things that fly, swim or walk. We discover that some animals can swim AND
walk or walk AND fly. So Georgie
suggests that it might be better to sort them according to their family ie. all
spiders or all birds etc.
'Gerbil'
and Georgie sing a song about classifying animals and the audience learns the
chorus:
Food, water and exercise, that's what
animals need.
We need to drink, we need to sleep, we
certainly need to feed.
All animals move, all animals grow,
all are born and die,
And with the right conditions as
surely we will thrive.
In the classroom children could make
their own headings and group 'Gerbil's animals according to the features they
have chosen. Gerbil’s animals were a
parrot, a bat, a spider, a centipede, a piranha and a turtle. You could choose your own animals and make
different groups out of them using their colour, number of legs or how they
move as your headings.
THE ADAPTATION OF ANIMALS TO THEIR
ENVIRONMENT
'Gerbil'
goes back to the jungle. We discover
that he has gone there to find a particular beast that he was sure he had seen
the last time he was there which he thinks might be The Missing Link, the link
between man and the beasts. Georgie
looks up The Missing Link in her book and discovers that a man called Charles
Darwin thought man had descended from the apes.
She wonders if all animals have adapted to where they live. She asks the audience to tell her when they
see an animal and together they can work out how it has adapted to its
environment. 'Gerbil's elephant is
discovered to have big ears to keep her cool on the hot, grassy plains. A monkey has long arms to swing through the
trees, a tail to help him balance and fingers to allow him to peel the fruit in
the jungle. A green snake appears, whose
colouring acts as camouflage and whose long muscular body helps him to squeeze
his prey. George concludes that indeed
it seems that animals have adapted to fit in with their surroundings.
Further study could include an
investigation of the animal life in and around the school grounds. The children could compare creatures that
live in ponds and streams with those that live on land and see what the
differences are. They can see which
features are most suited to living in water or on land.
THE SKELETON
Georgie
finds a pile of bones and with the help of the audience constructs the
skeleton. she shows the audience
sections of the body and together they work out where it all should be.
THE SENSES
Georgie
and Gerbil discuss the five senses and Georgie teaches everyone a little rhyme
to help us remember why we have them and what they do:
‘Our sight and hearing, smell and
taste and touch
Will keep us safe from danger and
help us very much.’
Gerbil
and Georgie discuss with the audience which senses we use when we cross a road:
sight to see the cars, hearing to listen out for traffic, smell to smell the fumes, They then
disuss the senses used to eat fish and chips: taste to taste the food, touch to
eat the chips, we smell the food and see it too.
In the classroom the children could
test their senses. They can find out how
far round they can see in each direction, they can try identifying foods just
through taste, try identifying substances through smell alone, try identifying
sounds without seeing what is making them and test the sensitivity of their
sense of touch by comparing the feeling in fingertips with the feeling in the
middle of the back.
Show Requirements
The
actors will be arriving approximately forty minutes prior to the start time in
order to set up and will need to have access to the school hall from then. They
bring the set, lighting and sound equipment with them so only need access to a
plug socket. They’ll need a space
approximately 15’ wide by 10’ deep with the children sitting in front, either
seated or on the floor. The show works
well ‘on the flat’ but if it’s more convenient for the actors to use your
stage, please let them know on arrival.
This show lasts one hour with a two minute ‘q & a’ session at the
end.