Reptile lesson for kindergarten/1st grade

[gardenfiend138]

I just thought I'd share a lesson that I did with my class and will be doing with 3 other classes. We only have an hour block for our weekly "clubs", where students rotate teachers for a variety of activities (cooking, body systems, holidays, and science).
We start out with a whole group discussion about reptiles in general, noting what is similar and different to other types of animals (this hits several 1st and second grade CA science standards). Students share out their background knowledge, experiences, etc., and I fill in the gaps as needed.
We then have science learning centers, where 3 groups of student rotate between 3 different activities. Each center lasts about 10 minutes; one is reading informational texts about snakes and other reptiles, one is measuring a variety of shed skins (had to be laminated to preserve them) with linker-cubes (practicing non-standard measurement, 1-1, counting), and the final one is a meet-and-greet with my female lesser. We look at the tongue and heat pits, touch the back and underside of the snake, and explore an un-laminated shed-skin. Students are developing question generating skills, making and conferring observations, using descriptive words, etc.

We finish up with getting in a circle and watching Diedra move around.
Students then do a color-and-cut spiral snake, which gives them practice recording observations with drawings, and fine-motor skill development (as well as a neat snake to hang in their class!).

Students know that if they aren't doing their jobs, she goes back in the cage, so I'm not worried about any accidents happening.

It's great to see nearly every student excited about the lesson, and to see the myths they bring with their background knowledge, and to provide an experience to dispel those myths.

I wish I had time to read Verde, but we only have an hour and 5 year olds take forever to color and cut. Hope you enjoyed the read!

[dr del]

Hi,

Sounds like a good solid plan.

I wish someone had done things like this when I was at school.


dr del

[DooLittle]

That's awesome, good job! Last year we got to take our corn snake in to our daughters 1st grade class (she had just shed, so we also took that in). Her teacher was scared of snakes, so we didn't take the bigger balls. All but one child was fascinated with her. This year, we offered to her teacher to bring the snakes, and a leopard gecko in. She said that would be great in the spring, when they were in their animal/science unit. I think its great to expose people to snakes, so they cam see how docile they really are. Snakes get a bad rap, and so many people are scared of them. Our daughter though, loves them to pieces! (Along with all her furry friends).

[LLLReptile]

I love this! I want to do something like this in the store for one of our "workshop weekends".

What kind of things do you focus on for a younger group of kids vs an older group?

This post is actually super neat, thanks for sharing! I'm gonna try out a "kid session" at our workshop next week.

-Jen

[DooLittle]

I love this! I want to do something like this in the store for one of our "workshop weekends".

What kind of things do you focus on for a younger group of kids vs an older group?

This post is actually super neat, thanks for sharing! I'm gonna try out a "kid session" at our workshop next week.

-Jen

The OP's ideas were all great. Also, our daughters teacher got out the old "overhead projector", which is linked to the internet nowadays. She put up a map on the screen, and then had her show where on a map the originated from. What kind of climate, what they eat, etc. It really is great, and the kids are just in awe.

[gardenfiend138]

Thanks for all of the positive feedback, I wish I got this kind of stuff in school too!
It was funny how many students were caught up in the fact that ball pythons are so shy! Went totally against many of their beliefs. I have had several parents coming into the classroom too to check her out.
For kindergarten and first grade, the science standards focus on characteristics of different classes of animals, describing features of animals, and making and recording observations. I did this with a 5th grade class once, but we focused on navigating informational texts, and on native California species.
That's actually a great idea about the map, it lets us hit an additional 1st grade standard! It will be easy enough to squeeze a 3 minute conversation about it.
Thank you again for all of the positive comments!

[DooLittle]

YAY! I LOVE this thread. Because I love my daughter, my snakes, and educating people about them, as well as being involved in her school!

[sbit]

This is so great! Thank you for doing this.

When I was a little kid, a bat rescue group once brought bats to class to show students, and I was scared... They taught us all about them, how they live, not to bother them, but not to be afraid either. We got to pet them gently and they were so shy and fuzzy, I fell in love!

Here's hoping you can do the same for someone with snakes!