Well, actually it's a salamander trail. The boys found a salamander yesterday. I was shocked as I didn't know they lived in this area at all, but especially in town. We did some online research and found out he is a tiger salamander and they do live in the area although they are not often seen. We also found out that it is legal to keep one as a pet so we have a new classroom pet. He has been named Spot. Today we took a trip to the library for some books about salamanders and a trip to the pet store for a terrarium set up at which point our "free" pet suddenly became rather expensive, LOL. Then we came home and set up the habitat and introduced Spot to his new home. He quickly showed us that he prefers the crickets we bought for him at the pet store to the creatures we caught last night in the yard. I think I will try to get soem math done alter, but other than that the theme of the day (maybe the week) is salamanders. The boys are loving it, especially my 6 year old science nut, but even the 9 year old has gotten into setting up the habitat and he has been taking pictures of Spot.
That's awesome! We haven't been as lucky to find pets, but we have accumulated quite a few (a tiger salamander is one). We've always used our "pet set-up" days as school days -- we cover a lot of science, some math (measuring areas to put the newest home, working with money to decide which home and toys to buy, etc.). A FULL day of school, if you ask me! By the way, our salamander's name Joey.
We had one of those in our bathroom the other day. I've never had one in the house before, at least not voluntarily.. Kinda cute.. They brought in a horned toad the other day and wanted to keep it. Those you do have to have a permit to keep since they are nearing extinction. Although, with all the ones I've seen this year, I think they are making a comeback. So needless to say, he didn't get to stay.
Lol my brother kept two as pets. Word to the wise cover the terrarium! His escaped and were found in my mothers greenhouse dried out like worms on a sidewalk. Yuck. But I have been hunting in the gardens and woods hoping to find one to show the kids since. They are rather shy, at least the ones around here. Enjoy. The horned toad sounds awesome too. Please post pics if you have any
It's fun to hear about everyones critters. This is a new area for me. I've never been into reptiles or amphipians, but raising this boy is going t be an adventure for all of us He always has a jar of some sort for catching bugs and snails and slugs. Those he keeps for a little while an dthen releases. This was the first really cool thing he has caught and teh first we are letting him keep. I wish I had thought of making them do some measuring and calculating for the habitat, but I didn't. We just had fun pickign things out. But I still figure that any talk of habitats and the needs of animals can count as school
