4th grade snake lecture HELP!

[psyhodad]

Today my daughter informed me that she volunteered me to give a lecture next Tuesday in her classroom about corn snakes. Since my son is also in 4th grade I figured that I would offer to do the same in his classroom right after hers.

Any suggestions on how I can present this so that I can keep their attention without getting to technical? I am not a public speaker nor do I like speaking publicly in front of groups. I find it very uncomfortable to have that much attention focused on me, but I will do it for my kids.

Off the top of my head I was thinking about following an outline like this:

Intro of myself
where corns come from (geographic locations)
show a baby and an adult normal (get their attention)
ask if anyone is afraid of snakes and why
cold blooded vs warm blooded and thermo regulation(what that means)
talk a little about snake physiology ( mainly how they find their prey and eat)
husbandry (requirements they would need to provide for a pet snake)
brumation
egg laying/hatching (staying clear from why the male snake smokes a cigarette, eats a hopper and rolls over and goes to sleep and his anatomy)
talk about the morphs (show more snakes)
a little talk about some of the ladies (Kathy Love, Connie Hurley etc...,) so the girls in the class know theres nothing wrong with liking snakes and show a copy of Kathy Love's book
hands on for those who want to hold/touch one - I'll have my older daughter with me to help supervise

I think if I can cram this into a half hour presentation that would be just right.

Any comments, suggestions or warnings would be greatly appreciated.

Lee

 

[DaemoNox]

It sounds good. You might not need though to talk about the female aspect in the hobby, at least not go into depth about it. Most girls these day's I've found are just as interested in snakes as boys are, just not as show-offish. If you want to keep their attention just keep bringing out snakes. An idea that I like is to print out caresheets the kids can take home with them; making an emphises on research before buying any reptile. I'd also put maybe a phone number or email addres on there if your willing to take calls if they have any questions, or links to good sites.

At the end you might want to have the kids who want to pet the snake line up to pet one (one at a time) and to ask questions. Be sure to have complete control of the animal (dont let them hold them, even if they're your kid's friends and have held them before), and never let the head get near them. Also pay close attention to the snake's body language, if you notice it getting uncomofortible put it back and take out another one. You also might want to make sure the snakes are empty before bringing them, to hopefully avoid any messy situations. Bring some of that hand cleaner too if you can to encourage them to wash before and after touching (you never know where their hands have been).

Pictures would be great too, especially of them eating as most kids love to see it. If you have any sheds you could donate it to the class.

 

[DaemoNox]

Another thing; before you start make it clear that everyone has to stay quiet and in their seats, or else you wont take any snakes out.

 

[Baba-Lou]

Intro of myself
where corns come from (geographic locations)
show a baby and an adult normal (get their attention)
ask if anyone is afraid of snakes and why
cold blooded vs warm blooded and thermo regulation(what that means)
talk a little about snake physiology ( mainly how they find their prey and eat)
husbandry (requirements they would need to provide for a pet snake)
brumation
egg laying/hatching (staying clear from why the male snake smokes a cigarette, eats a hopper and rolls over and goes to sleep and his anatomy)
talk about the morphs (show more snakes)
a little talk about some of the ladies (Kathy Love, Connie Hurley etc...,) so the girls in the class know theres nothing wrong with liking snakes and show a copy of Kathy Love's book
hands on for those who want to hold/touch one - I'll have my older daughter with me to help supervise

Sounds good to me. Even though I am young, I've done it under 15 once...although i was only in the 5th grade myself at the time. But for 4th graders. Keep it simple. Some kids will want to say forget it get to showing us the snake. I say take a calm tame corn around your neck, and every know and then pick it up and us it to demonstate some things. Really holds their attention. And as for letting them hamdle them and touching them. I'de say one at a time, and in a line. Gets the kids to remember to stay in lines and be polite and manners. So good luck. :wavey:

 

[peep_827]

I think your presentation sounds great! You might check your local library for books as well. I did a presentation on snakes for my environmental science class at college - I am going into education so I did my presentation at a 4th grade level. There are a LOT of great books about snakes out there, with fantastic pictures that you might want to share with the class. Another thing you might consider is researching snakes native to your area, and if there are venomous ones show them pictures and tell them to stay away from them, and so on, that that MOST snakes aren't venomous but actually helpful. You could talk about how snakes are useful to the environment as well (which was the focus of my presentation!), by eating pesky insects and rodents. I pulled up some facts on mice that are just disturbing. LOL I took one of my snakes, and personally I waited til the end to show them the live snake. I also took sheds to pass around. Anyway, these were adults pretending to be 4th graders, mind you, but when I took Athena out everybody either crowded around to look/touch/hold her, or hid in the corner. LOL But I was surprised at how many adults just wanted to TOUCH her, and were really impressed by the experience. Oh I see now you are leaving "hands on" for last . . . also make sure you take hand sanitizer or the kids can wash their hands after touching/holding a snake!

Really, it sounds good, these are just some suggestions you might think about - and HAVE FUN!!! :grin01:

 

[danvega]

I. . . also make sure you take hand sanitizer or the kids can wash their hands after touching/holding a snake!

Definitely make sure they wash their hands afterwards. Your snakes would probably prefer them to wash their hands beforehand too, before they touch their grubby little hands all over them. :rofl:

 

[Mary-Beth]

Might want to show them the vent and tell them what it's there for. That will definitely get their attention. :grin01:
Gotta love kids!
One of them will probably ask you how they poop anyway, that's usually the first question I get from visiting kids.

 

[Baba-Lou]

Might want to show them the vent and tell them what it's there for. That will definitely get their attention. :grin01:
Gotta love kids!
One of them will probably ask you how they poop anyway, that's usually the first question I get from visiting kids.

AH HAHA :roflmao: got to love little kids, and their questions about poop.

 

[coyote]

30 minutes isn't as long as you think. The time will fly.

Kids usually start asking lots of questions. A few individuals may dominate the crowd with their questions. The questions can get you off topic real fast.

Not every teacher or Aid can be relied upon to be there to maintain order and provide discipline. You might want to get assurance from the teacher or aid before hand that someone other than you will take care of that.

Kids like it when the speaker gets pooped on.

I have animals that aren't distracted by an audience and will eat. This is really cool. Obviously this animal would not be handled.

 

[cka]

I would make sure the school is OK with you bringing them in, also. Talk to her teacher, and maybe even the school's principal, to make sure they inderstand what you will be bringing and what you'd like to do. Some schools are leery of having the kids handle or even touch them (due to liability issues). Other than that it looks like you have more than enough material :*)

 

[KatieL]

What coyote says is true. Kids get off topic sometimes...although sometimes the questions are really good ones.

I do have a few suggestions (and I give 2 to 3 20 minute talks on snakes everyday at work...so I feel somewhat qualified for this subject)

Some kids have "snakes are scary, snakes are gross" drummed into their heads since they are little. Before I take a snake out I always aske them "Now, would I take out an animal that would hurt you?" and they all say "nooooooo" and I say "thats right, now this snake is the one I take out and show the 3 year olds, and if they can handle it, i think you can too, right?" and by that point most of the class agrees. If I skip this part, the majority of the class ends up screaming as I remove the snake from its enclosure. This keeps them calm. I'd like to say that I hope your class wouldn't be like this, but you never know.

I also found that putting the snake around your neck and actually just touching the snakes head or stroking its chin while you are talking puts most of the kids at ease...they see that you are not afraid of the snake, and you have made yourself "vulnerable" by putting around your neck, and by touching the snakes head they can see its not interested in biting.

You would be surprised at the stigmatism that kids have about snakes. It is so ingrained in our culture.

Also, the most common questions I get are:

• Why is he sticking out his tongue? (smelling, obviously)

• How does he go to the bathroom? (thats when i talk about the vent)

• Does he eat everyday? (why snakes only need to eat once a week)

• How come snakes shed their skin? (do they outgrow their clothes? snakes outgrow their skin. its good to explain how the shed ends up inside-out here)

• Why doesn't he bite you? because he knows you? (do you smell like food? does he feel threatened? then he doesn't need to bite)

• Why does he stay around your neck, and not run away? (heat!)

• Does he have fangs? (no, most snakes dont...their teeth are just like yours, but a little sharper)

• Why doesn't he feel slimy? (snakes aren't...just amphibs)

And the time will go *very* fast. You may want to pick 3 or 4 key points you want to get across and focus on those.

Good Luck! It should be a great learning experience for most of those kids!

 

[psyhodad]

Thank you everyone!

Wow! I just read everyones suggestion and I'm somewhat overwhelmed. I really didn't expect so many great replies. I also want to thank everyone for taking the the time to reply and offer their advice. I'm going to read all the posts again and make two outlines. One for content and the other for control.

My daughter already cleared this with the administration so everythings cool there.

Thanks again everyone. I was kind of stressing about this but after reading all the posts I'm more at ease and somewhat looking forward to this.

Lee

 

[Bobo's Mama]

You've got to let us all know how it went. I'm looking forward to hearing about it. What kind of questions they asked.

 

[Drizzt80]

Lee,
The only thing I can add is that of the snakes you recently received from me, the 004 Amel female would be the best snake for the job of being handled in front of crowds. She's done that before for several groups of 1st and 2nd graders.

D80

 

[psyhodad]

I'll let everyone know how it went on Tuesday.

Thanks Brent, I was going to email you privately and ask your opinion but you must have read my mind.

I'll also be showing Therisa Rex. She's our red tail boa who is an absolute sweetheart and gets handled by the kids daily.

 

[coyote]

No matter what you get to talk about or how it goes, it will be memorable for the kids and they are going to appreciate it. So, you can't go wrong.

 

[psyhodad]

No matter what you get to talk about or how it goes, it will be memorable for the kids and they are going to appreciate it. So, you can't go wrong.

When my older kids were in grade school I did the same thing for their classes. I brought in some snakes, lizards and tarantulas. My older daughter is 22 now and still talks about that visit to her class.

 

[E. g. guttata]

Today my daughter informed me that she volunteered me to give a lecture next Tuesday in her classroom about corn snakes.

I'm just waiting for my brother to do this to me (he's in middle school). A bunch of his friends in his science class have already asked him to have me bring in the biggest snake we have. I might go talk to the science teacher (who used to be MY old science teacher, great guy) about doing a lecture for one of his classes later in the year. I know there is a day when they have the option of wasting time watching a movie, or getting to disect an earth-worm (I chose the worm) due to testing, so I might try to shoot for that day, offering for a lecture on the corn snakes, as opposed to the earth-worm project. I think it might actually attract quite a crowd. LOL!

The points you out-lined sound good, but I would think about trying to combine similar topics (brumation and egg-laying perhaps) and trying to shorten it a bit. 30 minutes won't be too long, and I know when I get excited and just talk to people who ask me questions about my snakes, I can only touch half those subjects and talk their ears off for an hour or more. LMAO!! Good luck and I can't wait to find out how it goes.

 

[Silt]

Wow, thanks for posting this topic on presenting a little lecture, psyhodad. The reason for this is because my mom's friend (they're both teachers at the same school), would like me to present a talk on cornsnakes to her grade 6 class, and bring in my corn. This should by quite interesting, mind you, because I'm only 1 year older than the people that I'm presenting to. Heh heh. :grin01: She (my mother's friend) was originally going to get a cornsnake for her classroom, but after asking many questions to me, and doing more in-depth research, she decided not to. Especially since during the weekends the school shuts off all the heat. :shrugs:
So once again, thank you so very much for posting this topic, and having many replies, as this will help me a lot when it comes to planning out my presentation. :wavey:

 

[psyhodad]

The points you out-lined sound good, but I would think about trying to combine similar topics (brumation and egg-laying perhaps) and trying to shorten it a bit. 30 minutes won't be too long, and I know when I get excited and just talk to people who ask me questions about my snakes, I can only touch half those subjects and talk their ears off for an hour or more.

Well I'm now up to three classes and each one has set aside 45 minutes for me. I have a feeling that each presentation will take a course of it's own. Although I'll have an outline I figure it's going to be more of a question and answer type talk. I went to the library and got a bunch of books on snake physiology just to brush up because I have a feeling that there's going to be a lot of general questions on snakes like hearing, smell, locomotion etc... So not only are they going to learn but I'll be increasing my knowledge as well. I'm sure it'll be fun and a great learning experience for all of us.

Lee