Magnifying a Drop of Water

I have a microscope at home which I decided to put to good use. Mom and I bought some slides and decided to take a look at them through the microscope. These were from a Water Life slide set.

The first slide we looked at was Paramecium caudatum. At the highest magnification (x400) it looked like a yellowish, greenish pod. According to my book, A World in a Drop of Water: Exploring with a Microscope by Alvin Silverstein and Virginia Silverstein, it is supposed to look like a slipper. At the x100 and x40 magnifications, it looked like purple streaks (it was stained).

The second slide we looked at was Planaria, a flat worm. It looked like a long yellow streak with dots inside. The third slide was Hydra (budding), and this looked a hand with four fingers.