Trip to school?

I teach first grade and my kids are really interested in hearing about my snake. I'm thinking of surprising them and bringing him to school one day before the end of the year. Do you guys think my bp will be okay there for the whole school day? I'd probably take him in a small rubbermaid I have. I guess I could take a heating pad too. What do you guys think?

Hrrm... I think a heating pad and a small container is a bad combination... unless the temperature is set very precisely. I think I'd rather keep him at room temperature than risk overheating.

They take them to shows for 2 days. I don't think a day at school would hurt
Use a small hand heat pouch and give him a hide for the small rubbermaid and you should be set. If ya have a tempgun be sure to take along to keep check of temps, that is important. :)

I do believe a day at room temperature won't hurt him a bit. If you're able to provide some supplemental heat, be sure you can measure it, as Jotay suggests. You might also consider putting him in a pillow-case and then put the pillow-case in the rubbermaid you plan on using. That will serve as a bit of insulation against chilling too quickly...and will also give him a place to hide when you're not showing him.

Indeed - or use an opaque rubbermaid to buffer him from the potential stress of all that action going on all around.

Cool idea Gen and good work educating those kids! Gotta get to them before these stupid movies do haha :) seriously- being a teacher is the most important and least supported job around town. I have much respect and appreciation for anyone who teaches. Except for my math teacher freshman year of high school because that's why i don't understand math now..... ;)

Thanks Jonah! I really love what I do. It's always good to hear when someone appreciates us!

if your school is anything like my school was, it was always warm. so he should be fine.....as everyone has said.

I actually have a thermostat in my classroom so I can control the air/heat somewhat. Plus I'm in California, and it's June. So it shouldn't be a problem. I'll probably take him in on Monday.

Rubbermaid with lots of paper stuffed in it and snakey in a pillow case is the way to go IMO :D Goodluck. Don't let the little kiddies hurt ur BP :wink:

Be sure and give us a report about how it turns out!

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Originally Posted by iceman25

Goodluck. Don't let the little kiddies hurt ur BP :wink:

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I won't. I don't think I'll let them hold him. Just touch his body. They're a little young, and there are a couple of kids that I definitely wouldn't trust to hold him.

i am with Jonah on props to the teachers.
Most underated and paid people along with police and firefighters.
I know i support my son's teachers and school whenever and however I can

Like Judy said be sure to report back and let us know how it goes.

Yeah, I'll let you guys know how it goes next week. :)

Hey I took my 3 snakes to school for a project.

I kept all of them in a 10 gallon with a heating pad in the teachers lounge all day. I got a ride there but you obviously dont need that LOL

He will be fine:)

Well, I took Norbert to school today, and it went really well! I took him in a small rubbermaid with a hide inside and a pillowcase. The temperature in the room was fine, and I took my temp gun to check inside the rubbermaid throughout the day. My kids loved it and Norbert did a great job of showing off for them. He didn't ball up or anything, just moved all around exploring me. I sat in front of the class and talked all about him, and then I let them ask questions. They were very excited and interested. Then I let them come up feel or pet him. I didn't let them hold him. I just brought Norbert home, and he's all cozy in his warm hide now. I hope I didn't stress him out too much, I'll find out on Wednesday when I try to feed him. I think I accomplished my goal which was to get them to appreciate snakes, learn a bit about them, and not be afraid of them. It was a good day. :D

That's great, Gen. I'm sure they'll remember that for the rest of their lives, and they probably will appreciate snakes more. One of the only two women I work with who can even stand to hear about my snakes remembers being at her local mall as a young girl, and there was someone there doing an educational program with reptiles. The person had a burmese python, and Lisa got to touch it (it was too big to hold). She's remembered that all this time (she's 35 now), and she's fascinated by my snakes now. She came over this weekend and held my water python and loved it!

As for the other woman I work with who likes snakes - her mother owned a pet shop when she was little, and she remembers the ball pythons at her mother's store.

I think it's great, gen. Anything we can do to broaden the number of people in the next generation who can look at reptiles as interesting living creatures instead of pests or dangerous predators is good in my book.

If you have access to a corn, they are great to show to kids. They can handle the excitement better than balls & the kids can hold 'em. Check with your herp society, I'm sure someone there will loan one or bring one by.

I might get a corn over the summer, so maybe next year.

Heh, in my elementary school (grades 1-2 grouped in one large classroom) we had a garter snake, a box turtle, 3 red eared sliders, and some tadpoles (which we eventually released back into the wild when metamorphosed). It's funny that I've never thought about it since, but it may explain my interest in herps.

It's great that you're teaching your kids what snakes are really like before they learn to fear them out of ignorance. Good work!!!

That's great that you brought yur Bp in for them to see, Gen. I am glad to hear that everything went well :)

That's so awesome to hear, Gen! I love it when we can help the children learn to appreciate these animals. Too many adults are just too far gone to understand, even when they try, which is rare.

I would like to see if I can bring in our snake to our kids' classes over the next few years. That'd be really neat. :)

Thanks guys. I really think this is something I'll do every year.

Nice work Gen :)
I took about five of my herps to my neice and nephews school a few months ago. It was tonz of fun! We need to educate children about herps so one day they wont have such a negative rap ya know?

Just a suggestion, make sure to bring hand sanitizer to pass around (im sure you did somthing to that effect). The last thing we need are some kids to come home with salmonila.

Im glad things went well for ya! :)

That is great to hear that everything went so well. We took Bob to my daughter's school, the last day of school and the kids loved it!

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Originally Posted by green_man

Nice work Gen :)
Just a suggestion, make sure to bring hand sanitizer to pass around (im sure you did somthing to that effect). The last thing we need are some kids to come home with salmonila.

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We all washed our hands before and afterward, don't worry. :)

Not worrying :)
(I love your sig by the way, everytime I see one of your posts I always read it and laugh)

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Originally Posted by green_man

Not worrying :)
(I love your sig by the way, everytime I see one of your posts I always read it and laugh)

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Thanks! Are you a fan of Strongbad/homestarrunner.com?

Ive never heard of it to tell you the truth. It cracks me up anyway tho! Ill have to check it out. :)

I took Sixx to Hunters 1st grade class, and ended up making a trip to all of the 1st grade. They LOVED him. They had did a little "reptile" research and asked all kinds of questions. Ofcourse, Hunter considers himself an expert. I didn't let them hold him or touch him....didn't want ANY problems with parents, or upset children....and certainly not a stressed out Sixx. I graduated with one of the teachers, and she said that she will probably call me to come back next school year.

Yeah, it's a web animation site that's pretty funny. Go to www.homestarrunner.com and go to Strongbad emails. That's the funniest thing on the site. There are tons of them so I wouldn't watch all of them unless you have a lot of time on your hands. Some funny to watch are:

Some Kind Of Robot(This is the very first one, scroll down to the very bottom, this is where I got my sig from)
Spring Cleaning
Guitar
Techno
Comic
Japanese Cartoon
Dragon
kids' book
Caffeine
Video Games
Car

A new one comes out about every week or so.

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Originally Posted by rding

I didn't let them hold him or touch him....didn't want ANY problems with parents, or upset children....and certainly not a stressed out Sixx.

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They've done plenty of touching and holding various animals all year, so this was nothing new for us. A scuba diver who brought us ocean life one day brought a baby horn shark for them to touch/pet. Anyway, I definitely didn't not want to pass Norbert around, but I really wanted them to touch and feel him. So many people think snakes are slimy, I wanted them to see what a snake really feels like.

I understand, but since i was/am still kinda new, we have almost had Sixx one year, about 6 months at the time, i just didn't want to have to worry about anything.........maybe next year they can touch.......i agree with seeing what they feel like, though. people that touch Sixx can't believe that he is not a slimy snake.

I'll agree with that. I did something like that on a much smaller scale, I had all the neighborhood kids come over and see Icculus (after asking their parents) and had them each sit down in a circle indian style and I let them touch him first while I held him and a couple of them commented on how he wasn't slimy at all. Then I told them to stick out their arm like a branch and I just kind of laid Icc over it and let them feel him move for about 30 secs or so and then put him on the next kids arm. I was there the whole time (in the middle of the circle) monitoring and I had already given a speech about not trying to grab the head and the importance of washing hands before and after ever handling a snake. They were thrilled. :)