A week on reptiles

This week we are learning about reptiles.  After doing a bit of study, I'm thinking we need to revisit this topic next year in greater depth.   These are seriously cool critters. 

Circle Time - We chatted about the differences between amphibians and reptiles. 
Amphibians: live part of the their lives in water, have smooth skin, jelly like eggs...
Reptiles:  dry, scaly skin, live on the land but some love water, eggs are tough & leathery...
Some of the many reptiles: lizards (Komodo Dragons, chameleons, iguanas...), snakes, turtles & tortoises, alligators & crocodiles...  Then we watched a few videos on the National Geographic Kids website that showed some of these reptiles.  Here's a link. Enjoy!

Measuring Lizards - Some of the kiddos were way excited to learn that a komodo dragon is the world's largest lizard at 10 feet long, so we decided to measure that out with yarn.  Then we measured how tall the kiddos and Ms. Sara are to a komodo dragon.  They also wanted to know about the world's largest snake, which is the anaconda at 30 feet.  So of course we did some more measuring.

Craft Stick Lizards - These little reptiles turned out super cute!   

Two of the kiddos decided they needed several lizards and that their lizards needed caves to hide in.

I grabbed some paper plates and started fashioning quick caves.  Soon we had two "lizard villages".

Egg Carton Snakes - These are pretty cool.  The snakes can slither nicely, today we were working on painting them.  I just cut a bunch of egg cartons up and strung the cups on a piece of yarn with a bead at both ends.

Hidden Snakes - I hid snakes in the yard for the kiddos to find.  But first they hid in my apron pocket.  I found these lovely snakes at the dollar store, in a pack of 8.

 

Bread Stick Snakes - The kiddos helped me make these yummy treats and then we enjoyed them for snack.

Snake Life Cycle -  A few weeks ago we learned about frogs and talked about their life cycle.  Today we were focusing on snakes, one of the kiddos drew his own life cycle for a snake.  I thought he did a great job!  Egg is on the left, then going counter clockwise is the snake coming out of the egg, a baby snake, then a full grown one!

Circle Time - we talked about the differences between a tortoise (land dweller) and a turtle (water dweller).  We looked at pictures of each and noticed their physical differences.


Kid Turtle Shells - The kiddos got to decorate their own shells today.  We talked about camouflage and the different patterns on shells.  I just drew a simple shell pattern on poster board, poked holes and tied a ribbon.

We chatted about how turtles are slow moving reptiles, they walk reaaaally sloooowly...  The boys crawled for a bit, but quickly became Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

 

Bottle Cap Turtles - I had a few milk jug lids left over from monster week, so we used them for turtles this week.  First the kiddos drew designs on their turtle's backs, then they got to try them out in our pond.  They float really nicely. 

I just cut out a quick turtle shape from craft foam and hot glued the lids on.  I saw this idea on this blog.

 We also tried our turtles in a "dry" pond with lovely logs along side for basking on.

 Here is a cave one of the kiddos created for his turtles.

 The princesses came for a swim with the turtles as well.

Paper Plate Snakes - These turned out great!  The kiddos painted a paper plate, then the next day I spiral cut them and added googly eyes and a craft foam tongue.

Glowing Snakes - You know those glowing snakes you can buy at the firework tents?  Well, I had some left over and we tried them out.  We would have gone outside, but it was a bit too rainy.    The kiddos thought it was pretty cool.  (We had water nearby and we had chatted about staying in our seats and just watching - they did awesome.)

Egg Carton Alligators - These fabulous critters took a bit of gluing and doing, but we got them all together and they turned out super awesome!

 I caught this idea on this blog.