Friday, April 17, 2009

The snake field trip

Oh yes. SNAKES.
This presentation/ field trip was amazing. Miss Sam kept the kids' interest the whole time. And mine. She showed us skins, told us how to identify poisonous snakes, explained how a snake moves, where they live, showed us eggs and bones....
...and then she showed us much more. Sam pulled two dead snakes out of her cooler (yes, the same cooler that was holding her picnic lunch!) Then she dissected the snakes right in front of us. It was fascinating. Apparently scissors work best for splitting open snakes. Who knew? I'm all set. Did you know snakes only have one lung? Have you ever actually seen a snake's stomach?
After the dissecting, she showed us how to prepare the skin with salt. (and yes, she is actually touching a snake that has just been cut apart. Ewwwww!! Sam, I hope you washed your hands well before you ate your picnic lunch!! ;-) 2 by 2 they go :-)
My kids on their hike. I left Little Lad with Noni. It was nap-time anyway.
The Swingers ...hee heeee

See these fabulous "Super Homeschool Students"? Thanks again, Mimi and Papaw, for the shirts. It made the boys easy to spot in a crowd full of kids!




Just to clarify: Miss Sam had dead snakes that were killed out of absolute necessity. She does not condone killing snakes unless you truly must. I'll have to follow up with all of her info on how to determine a poisonous snake from a harmless one. The Artist and I wrote down the facts, but I can't sneak around in the dark right now to find the notebook. ;-)


4 comments:

Adelia said...

Wasn't that the best ever?? So, so fun!

Ms Debbie said...

I visited a school lately that had a snake in the classroom. Every time I walked by it ( IN THE AQUARIUM) I cringed... I cant do snakes ! Enjoyed yor blog of your experience though!

sara said...

Wow! Whenever I visit you there is always something fun going on!!! Keep up the great work, teacher-mom!

Ann-Marie said...

Ah, the things I never learned in school - I am always learning new things on your blog - you'll have to travel here when it's time for Sam's snake field trip, because I will have fainted dead away!