What is a whale?

A whale is a mammal. Read Living in the Ocean and make a list of the features that make a whale a mammal.

Now read this page about fish and make a list of the features that make a fish a fish.

Print out this Whales vs Fish page, and complete the activity.

Sam looked at its dolphin's tail, the curved flipper, a small dorsal fin. The sloping head seemed shark-like.
It lay on its side in the edge of the surf, dark skin gleaming in the early sun.

He bent close to the creature's still eye. He squatted in the shallow water and leaned towards the silent open-hanging mouth...

White, shiny teeth stood in a line along the pink-edged lower jaw. Unimagined teeth - sharp-pointed, tips curving back towards the creature's dark mouth. Small and perfect.

The Boy and the Whale
Katherine Scholes

Why is it a whale?

Here are some words about whales. Find them in the glossary to find out what each one means. Then ask your teacher for an outline picture of a whale, and use your new knowledge to label all its different parts.

blowhole	blubber	dorsal fin	ear	flipper
flukes	lungs	notch	rostrum	throat grooves

Misty lived in the Southern Ocean, far down round the cold curve of the world. Sometimes icebergs bigger than cathedrals loomed out of the gloom ad drifted past, Beyond them, icy cliffs and fields of snow stretched endlessly along the frozen coast of Antarctica.

In winter fierce blizzards blasted the sea with driven snow, but for a short time in summer the sun circled the horizon and dazzling arrows of light darted from the ice. The air warmed above freezing point.

Misty liked the summer months. At that time of the year the sea to the north of the icefields was rich with krill and she was able to swim along with her mouth open, sieving tonnes of food from the water, For Misty was a whale, a Southern Right whale. She was by no means the biggest whale in the world, for she weighed only sixty tonnes and was barely seventeen metres long. But she was active, strong and healthy.

Wendy's Whale
Colin Thiele

How big is a whale?

The blue whale is the largest creature on earth. It is bigger than any of the dinosaurs were, even Tyrannosaurus Rex!

Look at this diagram of a blue whale.
How long does a blue whale grow?

The smallest whale is the dwarf sperm whale.
How long does it grow?

In your playground, take 29 big steps from a marker and then mark the spot where you stop. Now use a trundle wheel to measure 29 metres from your starting point.
How close was your estimate?

Do the same thing to see the length of the dwarf sperm whale.
What is the difference between the length of the blue whale and the dwarf sperm whale?
If you lie down, would you be longer or shorter than the dwarf sperm whale?
How many children lying head to toe does it take to be the same length as a blue whale?

Choose six whales from the chart including the blue whale and the dwarf sperm whale and make a graph that shows their different lengths from longest to shortest.

'What would they give you, Grandma?' asked Lilly. 'What did you get from the whales?"

Lilly's grandmother sighed. 'Once or twice', she whispered, 'once or twice I heard them sing.'

The Whales' Song
Dyan Sheldon and Gary Blythe

How do whales sing?

Learn how the toothed whales find their prey using echolocation and then listen to them sing!

Claire realised it was not a person at all, but a seal; and that its round eyes were not just startled but glazed with terror. The brief act of recognition was all she had time for. One moment the seal was there; the next, it was swallowed up in a great eruption of water. In its place there was a much larger head and shoulders : a tooth-rimmed mouth still gaping; a powerful, neckless torso, with precise black-and-white colouring, outline against the sky.

Where the Whales Sing
Victor Kelleher

There are two types of whales - the toothed and the baleen. Use the information on these pages to create a table that shows the differences.Use these headings - species, food, and feeding habits.

If you saw a whale spout, how could you tell whether it was a toothed whale or a baleen?

There is so much more to learn about whales that some scientists spend all their time investigating them. If you want to find out more, then search KidsClick! Web Search to find some more sites that will answer more of your questions.