Tuesday, February 12, 2008

The Reptile Man

Today at our homeschool co-op, we finished off the reptile unit. The units all have 4 weeks of teaching, and then something special for the 5th week. For this fifth week, the Reptile Man (Mr. Michael) brought a bunch of reptiles to visit us. He talked from 10:30-12:30, and the kids were all very quiet and enthralled. The first thing he brought out was an alligator snapping turtle named Alexander. He put on a show by stretching his neck all over the place while opening and shutting his jaws. Next was a Mexican beaded lizard, which was quite a large lizard. After that came an alligator, which was only a few years old. This picture is of the assistant, Mr. David, holding the alligator. As he was getting the alligator out of his box, we got to hear the alligator hiss!

After the alligator, they brought out a crocodile, which was also only a few years old. The girls and I missed him because we went home so Grace could take a short nap. After the crocodile came the snakes--2 milksnakes, an anaconda, a copperhead, a rattlesnake (which actually did rattle), 2 cobras, and an albino python. That was where the girls and I came back in. Here is a picture of the python.




The kids all got to touch the python if they wanted to. Here are all the boys touching it. They all thought it felt really neat--soft instead of hard.



The man was really interesting and well-informed about reptiles. I, however, will never share his dedication and enthusiasm about reptiles, and I am just as glad to have this unit be over!

1 comment:

Johanna said...

It looks like the kids had a great time. My boys would have loved that. They absolutely LOVE reptiles. We have owned lizards, frogs, and turtles in the past, but I draw the line at having a snake in the house. They aske every couple months but the answer will always be NO.