wild classroom™
Overview-
The basis and objective of reptiles in my classroom is multi-faceted: it entails life cycle and food web studies (which are state standards for science in fourth and fifth grade in California), eco-responsibility, classroom responsibilities, adaptation for survival, the scientific process, climates and geography.
Also, it's a great "buy-in" for students. I teach in Los Angeles Unified School District. Here, students may not be as motivated to learn as we would like. Reptiles are exceedingly "cool", "fun", and "interesting". If they don't want to read Dickens or write about exploration, this is their outlet. Studies have shown that although most children are not natural readers or writers, all are scientific thinkers by nature and are curious about their surroundings.
The animals...
The first thing you need to know is which animals I have and how I go about introducing them to the class. I teach 4th and 5th grade, all subjects.
The animals I have include Madagascan hissing cockroaches, 2 western aquatic garter snakes, a fire-bellied toad, a California mountain kingsnake, mice, anoles, 3 bearded dragons (one is crippled in the back because of mbd, he is a rescue), 2 Chinese water dragons, 2 green iguanas, 2 red eared sliders.
The curriculum....
I start off by asking the students what they know about reptiles in general. I chart it on something called a KWL chart. It is a box divided into 3 columns: what we Know, what we Want to know, and what/how we Learned. The first day we are able to fill in the first 2 columns. As we go along, students can fill in the last column. I do a basic explanation of what a reptile is explaining that they are cold-blooded, that they get heat from rocks that are in the sun, and from the sun itself. I explain that reptiles are over 260 million years old, I give examples of reptiles. I talk about what kinds of things they eat and about how often they eat. I give examples of lifespans. We discuss (I get their ideas on and help them expand on) reptiles and adaptations. I show them pictures of different reptiles and ask if they can tell me where they live based on some of their attributes. We discuss things like Jacobsen's organs, "third eyes", regeneration, molting, gut-loading, UVB/calcium absorption. I keep lots of age-appropriate reptile encyclopedias and books in the classroom.
The students have to "earn" the reptiles coming to the classroom through good behavior. They earn stars (I draw on the board) for staying on task, everyone turning in their homework on a given day, a great job on an assignment, general good behavior, a thoughtful response to a question, etc. For each 20 stars, they earn a reptile. I don't tell them which it will be. They don't know what Ihave at home waiting to come in! The reason for them having to earn them is that they respect the animals more and are proud of their achievement. It also makes the classroom and the animals "theirs" much more than if I just brought them in.
After they've earned it, I do one of two things: 1) I will bring in the enclosure without the animal and they have to guess which kind of animal goes into that cage (EXACTLY). They don't get the animal brought in until they guess it exactly. They also need to provide ten reasons why they guessed whatever it was they guessed. The right guessers get to have the enclosure at their table for the day. OR 2) I will tell them what the name of the animal is. Their homework that night is to do research either at the library or via Internet to find out that animal's lifestyle and environment. They then need to describe what a perfect environment that could be contained in an enclosure within the classroom would be like (from substrate to lighting to temperature and how that temp would be maintained). The student with the best answer gets to help put the enclosure together when the animal comes in and gets to have the enclosure at their table for the day.
Once earned, the students cannot lose the privilege of having the reptiles in the classroom (unless abuse is a problem). Students earn the privilege of being "animal monitor" in pairs throughout the year. The animal monitor checks each enclosure daily to make sure animals are ok, feeds and cleans. I train the first pair of monitors, then each week there is a rotation where one of the animal monitors has finished his/her week and a new one takes the place being trained by the remaining monitor.
I also send home an outline in the beginning of the year, explaining what the children will be learning and how they'll be learning. I include a "wish list" of things that would be helpful if parents could provide. the list includes: anti-bacterial hand soap, 17 bean soup mix (for gut-load), calcium, orchid bark, old/used aquariums, toilet-paper and paper towel rolls, sponges, plants (especially ficus and pothos),rocks, pieces of wood, sand, etc..
As the first reptile comes in, I explain to the students that some people are very afraid of reptiles and if anyone in the room has any kind of problem at all they should let me know in private whenever they can. No one has ever taken me up on this, because (I think) by the time they've earned the reptiles they are too excited to be afraid. If, however, someone were afraid, I would seat them far away from where any reptiles are housed and be careful about their involvement.
The "resident reptiles", meaning the ones that stay in the classroom for the remainder of the year once earned, are the toad, turtles, anoles, snakes, (also, the roaches, mice and a tankful of swordtail fish). The larger lizards only come on a day-to-day basis as I work in an inner city school and we've been broken into on more than one occasion. One might think that animals would be left unharmed- but they've gone so far as to squish butterflies... Also, I believe the larger lizards require more care than can be provided during the regular school day, and enclosures larger than the room I have available in my classroom. So, if they've been good all week, I bring in the water dragon on Friday (or an iguana, or a beardie). I am working on getting an iguana enclosure for the classroom, as I do rescue, and it'd be nice to have 2 facilities for them.
Sometime during the first half of the school year, while the animals are being earned and brought in, I have the students do a research report on a reptile of their choice. ( I find that most do chameleons, boas and pythons~ which is interesting considering those are 3 of the bigger things I am quite obviously missing. I think it's great that they choose them because otherwise they'd probably not learn very much about them !!) The report needs to have at least 2 sources documented, must include their notes, a rough draft, a peer edit, a final draft, and an illustration. 4th graders produce a 3 page paper, while 5th graders produce a 5 page paper.
As they earn the reptiles, I will have a daily time, about 10 minutes long, for "reptile observation". This is following "mealworm observation" which took place before they earned reptiles. I find mealworm observation is a wonderful thing in the way of life cycles. I pass out the mealworms (in small tupperware, see-through containers with airholes) to each set of 2 students, they are in gut-load. The students are given the homework to bring in a piece of carrot. The first day of observations, I tell the students why gut-load is necessary. then, students are asked to dig through the gut-load and identify what is in it. The team who identifies the most materials wins a small plastic magnifying glass (they LOVE these). (my gut-load includes but is never limited to: ground 17 bean soup mix, millet, ground nuts, cornmeal, ground dried hibiscus flower,raisins, etc) I never do tell them what the life cycle of the mealworm is (worm, pupae, beetle), I just have them observe their worms every day for 10 minutes. They draw a picture of their dish and what they see inside, and mark down any changes from the day before. They also record questions they have that day, and predictions. It gets interesting when mealworms disappear and strange cocoon-like things appear!!! This activity is also done with swordtails (live-bearers), crickets and madagascan roaches.
Anyway, reptile observations are much the same. Everyday, they go to a different station for 10 minute observations. They usually notice things like who ate, how much poop there is, who is skinny-looking, that the anoles are brown today and were green last week, that the anoles are displaying their dewlaps, etc. again, they draw pictures, write what they see, ask questions and make predictions in their science observation journals.
About midway to three quarters through the year, we go on a trip to the Wildlife Waystation (although a trip to the reptile house at the zoo would work just as well, I just happen to volunteer at the Waystation and like the fact that it's animals are all rescues). There, they get a guided tour of a rescue/rehab facility. This psyches them up, and SOMEONE gets the great idea to do a waystation in the classroom as an assembly for the 1200 that attend my school. (The first time this happened, it was indeed the students idea. Now, they just THINK it is ; ))
Here's some of the culminating activity...
Students "decide" to do the WILD Classroom. Of course everyone has their favorite animal. In order to decide who will be the "guide" for each animal, there is a contest. This contest is in the form of a research report on the animal of choice. The 2 people with the best and most inclusive reports for each animal win the opportunity to represent that animal and talk about it to the rest of the school. These reports follow the same format as the previous general reptile reports, but I find the work here is much better, as they've learned more throughout the year and they are very motivated to have the best report. Each student also needs to list their 2 other choices for animals they'd like to represent (in case they don't win their first choice). They then have to do a mini-report on that animal, if they did not win first or second place. (After all, they do need to know what they are talking about!) Once the teams of 2 (once in awhile 3, if it was too difficult a decision and great reports were turned in by all) are established, the real work begins.
We make informational and brief factoid cards for each animal, these are decorative, bright and easily read. They include information such as habitat, where found, life span, what it eats, what eats it, etc.. (This helps the kids learn how to make loads of information more concise and meaningful). I then laminate these and on our big day, they are displayed next to the animal enclosure.
I then have the students bring in a white t-shirt. When I have them all, I pass them back out along with a bunch of rubber bands to each student. They twist and wad up sections of the shirt in the rubberbands and turn it back in to me. I buy dark green rit dye, throw them in the washing machine, and voila, we have matching uniforms. we also make little name badges from index cards where they write their name, and what kind of "expert" they are (i.e.. Natalie ...Bearded Dragon Expert) They LOVE to feel like experts!! We attach the badges to the shirts on the big day.
We usually have the "assembly" in the classroom during the last couple of weeks of school (June). It's a great activity for that time of year because the kids are completely tuned out of the normal routine. They really enjoy the novelty. Other teachers enjoy it as well, as it's something to get them out of their classrooms for a half hour! We tear EVERYTHING off the walls in the classroom- no calendar, no alphabet, no menu even. Nothing is left up. then, the classroom is divided into 3 sections: rainforest on one end, temperate zone in the middle, and desert at the other end. As a class we discuss which animals should be where.
Here's where the math comes in (aside from the "recipe" we use to make gut-load). We look at how big each animal generally gets. Then, I tell them to assume that the length of my hand (illustrated on the board) is equal to one inch. The assignment is to create a 2 dimensional replica of the assigned animal TO SCALE. This makes for GIANT water dragons and bearded dragons! The mealworm group is never too happy about this, as it's less interesting than the water dragon, but then they can spend more time decorating either the jungle background or one of the other areas.
We brainstorm as a whole class what kinds of things go where: The jungle has trees, flowers, vines. a waterfall, some other (less descript) wildlife, rain, etc.. The temperate zone has a pond, less dense forest, birds, grass, mountains, etc.. The desert has a huge sun, sand dunes, scorpions, very sparse vegetation, rocks, cacti, etc..
The scale replicas can be done either before or after the zones are set-up. But, if the replicas are started first, then as they finish the reward is to start decorating where you want.
For decoration, we use mostly butcher paper, construction paper, crepe paper, tissue paper (yeah, I know, we kill the jungle to re-create the jungle!!!!), paints, crayons, glue.
Extensions:
- related reptile or insect related literature
- daily or weekly weighings of reptiles
- weekly length recordings and ongoing charts of reptile growth
- 7th grade and up.... do your own fecal with a microscope!
As you can see, the opportunites are endless. I believe that children are naturally interested in the world around them. Much more so than reading, doing math problems from a book, or answering the questions at the end of the chapter.