Hi there, my name is Manny the Manatee and I am a very friendly Giant.
I may not be as fast as some of my friends but I am still an excellent swimmer so will have lots to show you this term! Are you ready to have fun with our underwater scooters on snorkelling day? As well as that we are going to start diving into the pool and trying to use "Butterfly legs" to help us shoot through the water!
Let me tell you a little bit more …
In this level we will be developing stronger stroke work! We introduce breast stroke legs and encourage your child to try Butterfly legs and by the end of term, they should be able to swim 10, 15 or 25 metres! The introduction of Scooters to the pool on snorkelling day is so much fun and is a great way to thank your child for working so hard during the term on their stroke work. We introduce diving and start with our sitting dives into the deep end and have lots of fun on self rescue day where we use an "extended arm" to rescue each other from the pool!
Have you seen a Manatee before? We are quite funny looking aren't we? We are also known as Sea Cows. You may think with our large stumpy shape that we were not great swimmers but don't be fooled. We are born as wonderful swimmers and even swim to the surface ourselves as soon as we are born to take our first breath. Unlike many of my whale and dolphin friends, we are not too keen on diving very deep and tend to stay within 2 or 3 metres of the surface so in level 16 you are probably better divers than we are!
We spend half of our day sleeping under the water, and surface for air at regular intervals of less than 20 minutes. The rest of our day is spent eating, grazing on floating plants and weeds, like water lettuce and alligator weed. We use our lips and front flippers to move the plants into our mouths. We don't have any front teeth, but use our teeth along each side or our mouth to tear at the plants to be able to eat them.
I am a West Indian Manatee and live in the shallow marshy Coastal areas and rivers of the nice warm Caribbean sea. I have relatives that live in West Africa and the Amazon too but we always tend to stay where the water is warm. We are known as Herbivores as we only eat plants and we like either water plants or those around the edges. We can use our flippers to help us walk along the bottom in shallow water finding the plants we like most. You won't see me in your pool though I'm afraid as I am just too big and when I am older I may weigh just as much as a small car! That might just take all the water out of your pool if I was to jump in! It's a shame I can't join you as Manatees tend to spend their time alone, so some company would have been nice. Never mind, I shall watch how you get on and be here to help you get to Level 17 to be with my dolphin friends.
Next term, you will be meeting Dipper The Dolphin