1st grade show and tell ideas?

Hi everyone!
On Thursdays I go to my daughters first grade class to help with reading time. Last week I brought butters my daughters butter ball python in to show the teacher his size and see if a show and tell was ok for sometime. She liked the idea and had us do a show and tell that day! When I asked about reading this week she asked me to come in a little early and bring the snakes (5 of them now) for show and tell this week when it's not rushed.
So question.... What fascinating facts should I share? Last week I brought a shed but I'll bring in many so they can pass them around. I'm bringing a almost 3500gram normal girl all they way down to my smallest around 150 gram baby. I will have 3 norm 1 butter 1 pastel something or anything about those specific genes? who proved butter gene? I can look that up but anything.
thanks for the help you guys can think of

Maybe talk about how the snakes live in their natural habitat! Get them interested in nature and the environment, spawn the next generation of herpers and conservationists :D

a 3500 gram BP must be huge

I can't be fore sure exact this week she was 3434 when I weighed her she did just eat a very large rat before I went out and got a scale so full weight w/rat 3434
I got her recently and she is like a big lazy lap cat I hope one day when she breeds she produce a huge clutch

Get them to tell their parents and other family members how great these animals are and how they are not really going to hurt you unless you provoke them. :P

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Originally Posted by Joe balls

I can't be fore sure exact this week she was 3434 when I weighed her she did just eat a very large rat before I went out and got a scale so full weight w/rat 3434
I got her recently and she is like a big lazy lap cat I hope one day when she breeds she produce a huge clutch

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You might want to wait until she's digested that rat before bringing her to the classroom, otherwise you could end up educating the kids on the wonders of regurgitation. :O

Honestly I wouldn't bring the baby in - they can be nippy. Adults are more used to being handled and are less easily stressed.

I would also bring in some of the equipment you need to keep a snake, maybe even set up a tub to show their "home", along with a temp gun or IR thermometer since kids like cool gadgets. They can take the snake's temperature and compare it to their own.

Funny story. When I was young - I think I was in first grade too - we got permission to bring in my snakes for show and tell. I had a little kingsnake named Venom, and my dad and mother brought their two largers - a milk and a corn.

Another student also got permission to bring in their pets, because the teacher had announced mine and said if anybody else wanted to join they were welcome. The other student's pets? Mice!

It worked out well enough, we told the students to wash their hands before handling the snakes and it went swimmingly. I just thought it was a funny coincidence! The snakes were very laid back and nobody got bitten. We shared information about what they ate and how often, their sheds, and a bit about the habitat they come from. Everyone was very excited, I think it's very cool that you get to do a show and tell with the ball pythons :)

ETA: Great ideas in the post above me with the gadgets! A good way to stress how important good husbandry is, while making it fun :)

In my experience kids really couldn't give a crap about the morphs or anything about the morphs. Maybe some that are drastic difference, like BEL, super cinny, pied. Butter,pastel, or pin compared to a normal they don't really seem to grasp it. But thats my experience.

How they live in the wild and what they eat in the wild and captivity is majority the educational questions I get from little ones. Be prepared to answer questions like "Can I hold it?","Will it bite?", Can you fed it right now?", "Is it slimey?", ect. I agree a husbandry lesson would be great.

I was alittle worried about a regurgitation or poop this close to feeding but it will had been..24 aaaah carry the 2 .... Ahhh .math hours.... At least acouple days cuz it's not till tomarow

I handle all my snakes more than any of you guys would like me to, they are out and wrapped on me or my daughters (one at a time)pretty much all day with exceptions of feedings shedding and just if they don't seem to want to be held. I do this in my head to get the snakes as used to use as possible to us and to avoid any mistaken identity strike or food confusion strike ect. I will catch hell and I'm prepared to but it has worked very well for me so far as I have NEVER had a snake strike at me. I am not nieve and now that I said that I'm sure I'll get tagged tonight, but for me I don't get the head shy responce and I've had them come out of there hides mid day for attention not just a food responce.
Please don't hurt me

One more question... The weather is very nice in California but I will have the snake out of the house for at least 2 hours so I was going to use the hand warmers for snow trips if I need portable heat. Sound like it will work?

Hand warmers are terrible for heat, some of them can peak at over 160 degrees and could cause burns. A hot water bottle wrapped in a towel is better (measure the temp) the long term heat pads used by shippers are probably your best bet, they last a long time and don't get quite so hot. But quite frankly you probably won't need anything as long as the temps aren't too cold. Insulated containers (like a beer cooler) work great, especially the ones that latch shut.

Over the years I've probably done well over a thousand hours in hands on education with my reptiles in various venues, a couple of rules that I go by myself.

Don't use an animal that has eaten in the past week (I've had a regurgitation happen with a snow corn after very little handling, I thought the three days I waited since her last meal had been long enough. I was wrong) There will be people who will ask you if they can watch it eat. It'll be tempting, after all it is a pretty intersteing thing to watch, but don't do it. If you do you'll have a snake with a full belly that you still have to transport where it'll get jostled around and you'll probably get your rodent back MUCH the worse for wear.

Don't use an animal that is getting ready to shed, bring spares just in case (I've brought animals before that looked fine when I packed them up earlier in the day, but started looking blue by show time)

Keep handling times short, my maximum is 2 hours per animal, shorter times are probably better, bring spare snakes to switch off with.

Never take out more then one animal at a time, it's too easy to lose track of what everyone is doing.

Don't let other people 'hold' your animal. They can hold 'most' of it as long as you've got a controlling hand on it.

Always control the head. Don't allow anyone else close to the head. Even a 'dog tame' snake can bite in the right conditions. If a bite is going to happen, better you then some little kid. Keep some antiseptic and bandages handy just in case, It's no fun finishing a show with blood dripping down your arm and off of your elbow into a puddle on the floor (yes, it's happened to me)

Bring paper towels for accidents. Wet wipes, especially the sanitizing kind, are really handy.

Bring spare clean snake bags. (same reason, Hint: Don't store your spare bags UNDER the occupied snake bags in your transport case)

Keep your answers and descriptions short and to the point. Where does it live? What does it eat? What eats it? What kind of environment does it occupy? Why are snakes important in the wild? Long drawn out descriptions of genetics might be fun for us, but do that with an audience and you'll see eyes glaze over pretty quickly.

Doing educational shows is a lot of fun, it feels good to be able to show off your animals and maybe convert a few who used to think snakes were 'icky' But when dealing with live animals with minds of their own, things can go sidesways pretty quick (and usually make for the best stories later) but you might not make many converts that way so it's best to be well prepared beforehand.

Thanks for the ideas so far! my guys seem to all be on close to the same shedding schedule some how I don't know how that worked out but they all shed last week, I was gonna read the package of the hand warmers for temps but I wont use theses thanks for that heads up! It's only first grade and didn't plan of a feeding demo at all! Too much. I'm gonna leave the baby's home even though I don't think they would be a bite problem the kids at school do get more excited than when we hold them at home in controlled conditions. I'm bringing a book a poster and all differant sized sheds they can pass around. I'll be a great guy and tell them about this sight and that their parents can find breeders here:gj: