Fritz the happy school boy...
I walk to school, so I carried him in his little Tupperware container that he came to me in from Terri via Connie, with aspen from his own viv so that he'd have his smell about him. As it is cold, I put him inside of my coat, right against my chest, but I also managed to drop & smash my tea traveling mug on the ground, so I walked to 7-11 for some coffee. I didn't think anything of it when the cashier asked what I had bulging out of my coat -- because I'm so proud of the darling -- but my boyfriend later pointed it out to me that he may have thought I was stealing. Nonetheless, I showed him the container, much to the surprise of him and the customer behind me. Both thought it was very cool, especially after I explained that I'm a teacher.
We got to school just fine, and the office staff naturally wanted to see him. Everyone was expecting a ferocious looking beast, apparently. I told everyone that he's over 2' long, and they seemed to have expected the same in diameter, I guess. Anyway, the staff seemed to be in continual shock when I explained that he eats mice. Really, duh. No, no kidding at all - duh. And, they thought it more bizarre that I keep frozen mice in my freezer. My response was, "You keep frozen dead chickens in your freezer, what's the difference?" Ah, well...the ignorance that I shall combat eventually enough.
So, I made sure all was going well with Fritz's tank and so forth. I even came dressed for the occasion -- wearing Kathy Love's "Corn snakes...always in good taste!" T-shirt & jeans.
I totally forgot that it was also the Principal for a Day event where local business people come in to play principal...and I knew that the principal would be back to visit to see the snake & whaddaya know, but who was at my door at 9:30 am? Oh, yes...but all were interested & calm about it. (Jeans are usually for casual Fris, but...we don't have school tomorrow so I felt it best to wear them with my shirt...oh, well! I'm in good standing, especially now that my classroom is more science-y than either of the other two science teachers classrooms!)
The kids were excited...we started by making a word web on corn snakes to use it as inspiration for a classroom name for Fritz.
Then, later, when I had only half the class with me, we discussed the vivarium rules (if you can read the card on my photo of the tank, they're there...) and after some hand sanitizer, we sat in a circle on the rug and I held Fritz and we talked about how to pet him. Fritz was as calm as could be -- and so were the kids. NOT ONE KID was afraid to touch him, and all of them were thrilled when he wanted to slide onto them. They were fascinated by how soft/smooth/silky he is. It was brilliant.
We checked temps all day long to make sure that all was going well, and then I put him in his tank. When I finally got him in there, I realized as I opened the little Tupperware container that something didn't smell so sweet. Apparently, from all of the holding and looking, he finally gave me some poo. I swear, he holds onto it after his meal as if it is precious gold, afraid to let it go. Maizie & Belle poo right away; Fritz -- virtually an eon...
At least he held on to it versus pooing on a student! Soon enough, just not the first day...
I wanted him to get a drink and I put him in his palatial water bowl, but he wasn't so much thirsty as he wanted to swim...! And then he stopped to rest...and down into the aspen he went.
And, here is Fritz's set-up...we still haven't voted on a name, so I'm still calling him Fritz. I wanted the kids to come up with names that are herp/reptile/snake related, but I still have those that suggest "Jay Z" or "Max" or "Joseph" (after himself, of course). When I ask how those names are reptile related, I get shrugs. Or, I got the kid who suggested "Nocturny" or even "Farmsnake"...ok, those at least have something to do with the snake, but c'mon, where's the imagination? One girl suggested "Slither" after we discussed how he moves...that's getting better! I'll bring up his color & other details next week... Anyway...Fritz has a nice big tank with lots of aspen and a nice warm side and a plant to hide in and the kids are bringing in toilet paper rolls and paper towel tubes and toothpaste boxes faster than I can stuff them in there. One girl even brought me her collection of gumball machine toys from some cartoon. Hmmm...we'll see on that one. Not bad, huh? And, the fish tank is right next to it, too...it's covered in algae at the moment (delayed action betta feeder tablets! whatta mess! instead, the betta comes home with me this weekend & the cherry shrimp and the otocinclus can go nuts...), but the kids love it all.
And, that's all until Mon! I'm hoping for some photos of the kids holding Fritz, getting a name down, some letter-writing/thank-yous
, and then observing times of shedding, measuring the previous shed to the recent one, observing how he moves, and comparing reptiles with amphibians -- which we're getting into now, as well. It will also be good when we go to the zoo in two weeks. So far, so good!
So I did a quick search on how to remove the photos, and no avail, so my apologies for the repeats. I got too excited, I guess...
Hope all goes good for you, your class, and Fritz!!!
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