Day two - Reptiles

Its day two of our animal camp week.  We had a very fun day planed.  First up it was time to learn about turtles.  I set up the invitation before I went to sleep

It consisted of a coloring sheet of a red ear slider, crayons, and the boys "Summer Work" which is age appropriate work for them to do each morning of summer.  For Noah is it sentence starters, and for Eli its sight words.

I had a "fact sheet" so I could tell them all about turtles while they colored and answer their questions

We talked about endoskeletons and what they were and what they did (aka shell)--the endoskeleton is infused to the exoskeleton (aka shell) by its spine and ribcage. the shell has nerve endings so they can feel the sensations of touch, pressure, etc.

I asked if they knew how fast a turtle could swim

--a turtle can swim at speeds up to 10-12mph and walk at speeds up to 4-5mph. (national geographic 1999, d. wood) the fastest a land tortoise has been known to move is 0.22 mph (guiness book of records 1992, donald mcfarland) link

I asked Eli to tell everyone what it felt like to be bit by a turtle--they do not have teeth, but instead a sharp beak made up of keratin. they also have a very strong jaw pressure which helps them break up food.

We talked about eating habbits & later watched the turtles eat

--lack of salivary glands means they have to drag their food into the water in order to eat it.

--spend most of their lives in water, even sleep in water. leave only to bask or nest.

--build their muscle structure by swimming up to and hovering at the water's surface to ''catch air" water weighs approximately 8.3lbs/gallon so the deeper the water, the higher the pressure, the more the structure is built.

(large one is Echo, small one is Shamu)

***RED EAR SLIDERS***

--grow to an average of 9" (males) to 12" (female)

--male res have long claws

(Echo is a red ear slider, Shamu is a yellow bellied slider)

--because of overbreeding, they can run other species out of their native habitats.

--are the most common species on the pet market.

These are babies :)  next to them is a mouth rincing cup to give you an idea of size.

It just so happened that the Library was having Snakes Alive today, so we headed to the library

 

We ran into some friends :)  Then it was time for the show to start

We got to meet a ball pithon, and we learned why snakes do not make good pets.  They can live 65 YEARS!!!!  Unless my boys want a life time pet we will not be getting one

 I really liked the assistants out fit, she was super cute

All the kids touched the snake.  We learned they are very strong

Next it was time to meet the hissing cockroaches

 YUCK!  My niece did not touch these!  But the boys did

Hissing Cock roaches are really more of a beatle and can not live in tempertaures that get colder than 54 F

Okay time to put those away and get out something cute.  Bring out the hedge hog please

 Ahhh!!!!  We can't touch him because he has quills and may poke us.  Now she said, unlike the snake hedgehogs do make good pets (are you reading Wes......)

Cute friends :)

And this wraps up day two of Animal camp week