Science Sunday: Snakes

I’m finally getting our snake post written, it feels like I’ve been trying to write it forever.  The good news is, since I took so long I was able to get almost every one of our snake activities done.

First, as I mentioned before, in the “learning how to use a microscope” post, we looked at snake skins.

They studied them with both magnifying glasses and microscopes.  The kids thought the magnifying glass revealed more, but I think that’s mostly because they are more used to it.  They were amazed to see all of the scales on the skin, and the shapes in the skin.  Their descriptions amused me, “The snake skin is bumpy and gray.”

Then we tried moving like snakes, and discovered several things.  First we discovered it is very hard to move like a snake.  They are glad they can move on their feet instead.  Next we discussed where it would be harder to move, a smooth floor or a rough floor for a snake.  At first they thought a smooth floor, but as they thought about how they move, they realized the snakes need some amount of texture for their “scoots” (the name of the special scales used to grip, I may be spelling it wrong) to be able to help them move.

Then we discussed their different clothing choices.  Batman had a super slick hoodie on, Princess had on a textured hoodie, and Superman had on a run of the mill hoodie.  Princess came in first place because her clothes gave her more grip in the race.  So, that led into a great discussion about their scales and how they help the snake move.

We ended our snake unit study with a trip to the pet store to study their snakes there.  Unfortunately, the kids weren’t interested in that.  So they looked at them for 2 minutes, then spent 15 minutes wondering at the mice.  I guess they’d seen enough snakes recently at other field trips, that this was not as special.  Princess is now requesting a pet mouse.  I did not outright laugh in her face………..

They also wrote out sentences on the snakes, but that is upstairs hiding somewhere in our mess, and I don’t want to dig it up…………

Superman quite amused me with his absorption of the snake unit.  On my way to my birthday lunch, he asked “Mommy, when babies are born they break out of their egg and then are born live, just like rattlesnakes.  I know this because human babies are born live.”  After I stopped laughing I corrected his error, but I thought it was a pretty good bit of reasoning on his part.

At some point I’ll have to tell ya’ll the funny story of my birthday celebration.  I was KIDNAPPED!  Forced to leave books behind, and then tortured………..

FYI: I just got internet access back on Wednesday, and that and Thursday were taken up with laundry, unpacking, and CLEANING, so much cleaning.  So, I have not finished commenting on posts yet.  Wow, you lose internet access for a week or so, and so many emails and things pile up.   I’m getting to you soon, don’t worry.

Let’s see what others did this week:

Each week I’m spotlighting a few posts that were shared previously.  Many posts get linked up later in the week and they don’t always get as many clicks as they deserve, so I’m trying to spotlight a few every week.

Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns shared a great post about making paper.  I have to admit I ended up pinning it under my geography studies, rather than a science board…….

Inspired Montessori and Arts shared a great way to present a skeleton unit to her montessori classroom.  My boys would be so jealous.

I loved the experiment from Navigating by Joy.  She let her kids experiment with different things to see what would dissolve in water.  I’m thinking activity to keep them busy this coming week.

All Things Beautiful has a great cloud visual, that is my favorite I’ve seen shared like this.

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