Corn snakes in the classroom...periodic updates to my Chgo classroom donation :)

I just wanted to give this thread a bump..
How are they doing this year??

Originally Posted by tricksterpup

I just wanted to give this thread a bump..
How are they doing this year??

Oh, Trickster, I'm sorry that I missed this bump! April was a hellish time -- in fact, the whole school year this past year was fairly hellish. Typically, your first year of teaching is the worst year of your career because it's such an absolute nightmare...well, this year was right up there with it. In the end, though, the students learned a lot, and they all love reptiles...

Unfortunately, I never got a chance to move the tank & such into the classroom...there was always something that I was hauling to & from school (books/texts, supplies, whatever...) & I never got a chance to conduct the reptile unit how I had it the year before; there was too much new curriculum being sent from the top down that I had no chance to do any of it. *However*, fortunately, the kids got to meet the snakes & my bearded dragon and learn about them -- more than just my class, too, as I was doing presentations for Kindergarten, 1st, 4th & 5th graders. AND...I'm looping with my class from 2nd grade to 3rd grade, so we're going to start with the reptile unit right away at the beginning of the year! I feel like I get to make up for past mistakes this coming year by having the kids again for another year...

However, here are some of my favorite photos from this year...! (Most of the time, I'd forget my camera, or I'd be so busy with handling & helping that I'd forget...oh, well!)

Here's Fritz, doing his thang! Fritz is visiting a 4th grade classroom with a 5th grade ESL class also in there, doing a demonstration feeding...the kids then all wrote questions to me about snakes, and I wrote back to them all with the answers...they loved it, including the two other teachers in the room...!


Now, Fritz doing a feeding in my classroom for this group of girls...


Schnee with another group of students, who were impressed to see her take off!


Maizie bonding with another student:


And ALL of the students wanted to hold Caramelo when they saw me put him around my neck while I was trying to handle more than one thing, and after a lot of them borrowed my book...so they all wanted to be "The Girl Who Wore Snakes"...
The Girl Who Wore Snakes, by Angela Johnson -- hard to find, but not impossible! (And it's all about corn snakes!)



Finally, I just found this: if you have/work with young children, here is a cute .pdf of lots of snakey-things that you can do/read/play with kids!
http://www.plcmc.org/Services/Storyt...dfs/Snakes.pdf

Thanks again for asking, and I hope that I have more to show & tell this coming year!

Great update Christina, those students look so happy to be learning.

Originally Posted by diamondlil

Great update Christina, those students look so happy to be learning.

Thanks! Any day that was reptile day was probably their favorite during the whole year...and all of them wanted to take one of the snakes home with them... I really look forward to having them do more with the snakes this coming year, and possibly have one of my leopard geckos move into the classroom, too.

Thanks for the update Christina! They all look so intrigued by the snakes. Ohh, I wish you were my teacher!

Christina,
Thanks for the update. You still deserve much kudos for your work in the classroom and teaching them about Corns and other herps.

Originally Posted by Dave123

Thanks for the update Christina! They all look so intrigued by the snakes. Ohh, I wish you were my teacher!

There are some students of mine who would agree with you on that, and some who would look at you very strangely and disagree profoundly... However, I have gotten quite the reputation in school for my reptiles and I don't mind it at all -- at my school, because it's K-8, it's seriously hard to get any respect from the 7-8th graders; very tough kids...but my students from 4 years ago are now in 6th grade (holy crap!), and from presentations, I've gotten to know quite a few of the new 7th graders, so hopefully I'll be able to use that newfound respect to my advantage. (Perhaps by getting the hallway to be a bit more quiet around my classroom during transitions?!)

Originally Posted by tricksterpup

Christina,
Thanks for the update. You still deserve much kudos for your work in the classroom and teaching them about Corns and other herps.

Thanks; the kids love it and the adults are just as curious. It's pretty win-win.