Confession time: I have been telling my students that spiders are not insects because they don’t have six legs. But I have never bothered to remember the category of animals they belong to. Today, because I was trying to get my son to do a few pages of Science, I finally committed arachnids into memory.

Spiders and scorpions are arachnids. I think this will be ingrained in my mind because I now have skin in the game 😊 need to make sure my children get their concepts right for the PSLE).

Incidentally, I think “Animals” expanded our minds a little. Our national curriculum just requires pupils to learn insects, but this book introduces invertebrates. Why this curious omission since more than 90% of all animals are invertebrates? But I can kinda understand why because it can take copious amounts of time for me to get some students to remember that insects have six legs and three body parts.

What I like about this book is its fun facts. The Chinese giant salamander is one of the largest amphibians; the American crocodile is one of the largest crocodile species; sailfish and the black marlin fish are two of the fastest species of fish; an ostrich egg can weight up to over 2.5kg; the great white shark can grow to around 6 metres in length. It’s a pity that the timetable doesn’t allow me the space to dwell on such things. I think children will take to them more readily than animals’ pertinent characteristics, as useful as the latter may be.

And yes, arachnids are invertebrates.