The Fish Died...

Maddie's class blog is password protected so I've copied with permission the latest entry to be posted. When I dropped Maddie off at school this morning, Preeti showed it to me and said that Maddie was the star of the post! So... kind of morbid, but fish die - it's a fact of life!

From Ms. Preeit's Blog...

Why did our fish die?
Last Friday afternoon, we realized that our fish were not doing well. Three goldfish did not look good. They were swimming belly-up in the tank. I took the three fish out into another tub, as advised to by a colleague who is knowledgeable about fish. He also suggested I check the quality of the water with a PH value kit. I did this discreetly - my intention being not to upset the children. The PH value was in the acceptable range. It was almost time for the buses, so children didn’t quite realize what I had done. Nor was there enough time to explain to them, since the fish looked pretty bad. After the children left, the three fish died. Now, there was only one that survived. I fed the fish, crossed my fingers and left.

Monday morning, when children started to arrive, Maddie was the first to notice that the lone fish didn’t look too good. “The fishy is sick, Ms. Preeti”, she said. “Like this”. And she opened our “How to take care of Fish” book to a page which gave info on signs that meant the fish were sick. A couple of other girls came by to check the tank. They compared our fish with the picture in the book. Samantha said that we needed a thermometer and medicine for the fish because he was sick. At that point, I went to ask the colleague for more advice and he suggested trying to check the levels of Nitrate in the water. This time, children saw what I did. I explained to them that I was checking to see if the water was good for the fish. We measured 5ml of tank water and put in 7 drops of the chemical together. We then shook the tube and compared the color with that on the chart. It was yellow-which is what it should be. The water was good. But the fish wasn’t. And it did die. Children saw that I was bothered. Maddie said to me: “Ms. Preeti, don’t be sad. I will buy you some new fish”.

At our next meeting, we discussed what had happened to our fish and children were pretty sure that the fish died because they were sick. We also discussed that living things don’t necessarily die if they are sick. I asked them what we should do. Most children wanted to buy new fish. In our class, children take turns everyday to feed the fish and turtles. And they are quite responsible about their job. Even if the child whose turn it is forgets, invariably someone else will remind the child.