Snakes in the Classroom

 One of my students found a baby garter snake in his back yard and decided to share it with the class. Being firm believers in emergent curriculum, we hauled out the 10 gallon aquarium and set up a snake habitat. The kids were unsure of what kind of space a snake would like, so to be respectful, we looked in some books. We put sand down on the bottom of aquarium and put a little rock pond down in the sand so he could slither in to get a drink or have a bath. We found some dried leaves and some sticks outside and put those in the corner so he would have a place to hide and feel safe. Then we put in a shiny marble so he would have something to play with (no, the books didn't say anything about snakes needing toys but the children were sure it was a mistake that would be corrected in future printings)

Snake Study Table

The building box

The children have been enjoying the snake, they like to observe him and hunt earth worms for him so they can watch him eat. On Friday we decided we needed to highlight snakes in our classroom. We are reading some books with snakes in them - Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear and Baby Rattlesnake to name two - and we decided to focus on snakes in our representational art and in our discovery area. We moved the snake enclosure to its own table and included several resource books about snakes, a small basket of plastic snakes, a wooden box with rocks, driftwood, moss and evergreen branches and an assortment of magnifying glasses. We have been making snake houses and painting snake pictures and making snakes with playdough and just generally experiencing snakes (Hmm, maybe that is why a certain young man decided to "slither" down the hall and out the door to play outside today!)

Representational art - Three-year-old

This study on snakes has made the children more aware of their surroundings, especially when they are outdoors. They have taken on responsibility for another living thing and they take this responsibility very seriously. They check every day to make sure the snake has clean water and every day they hunt for food for Mr. Snake.

Building a Snake House