Turtle Times: Team 2 Monday, February 22, 2010

3/22/10
Rocky has a long neck. EM saw Rocky kicking. What was he doing? Rocky snapped at the food very speedily. When we put Tubiflex and Reptomin in the tank, Rocky didn't eat. He ate a hot dog made of Reptomin and Tubiflex and he ate a bit. After that we gave Rocky a Reptomin with a little tubiflex worm on it. We called it a kabob. He ate all of it this time.

Late afternoon

Rocky seems to have a bright pink tongue. EM noticed he has golden eyes.He is almost as big as a computer mouse. Rocky has an unusual eating habit. He eats some Reptomin then he swims down to the bottom and slurps up the crumbs. Then he swims up for more. Rocky does not eat Tubiflex worms at all.

How We Found Rocky

“Can we run to the basketball court?” was the last thing that I heard before the commotion broke out. “TURTLE, A TURTLE!” “Everyone, I see a turtle!” Two girls screamed out in a chorus. When I looked down by my feet, I saw a little critter, the size of a 50¢ piece. It looked like it was covered with powdered cinnamon sugar. The first thought that popped into my head was “Oh my gosh, we could have stepped on it, but this must be it’s lucky day.” Then I thought, “I can’t let this moment pass without calling everyone over.” “Hey folks, come over here, there is a turtle.” The rest of the class ran over like stampeding buffalos, then stopped in their tracks, made a circle and sat down.

There was much chatter and many questions. I knew inevitably someone would ask, “Can we keep it?” I started to debate with myself. “If we keep it, I don’t have a turtle curriculum.” “That doesn’t matter, you’ll develop it as you go.” “Well, there is a Blanding’s turtle conservation project going on. What if this is Blanding’s turtle and we let it go? We will have missed the opportunity to participate.” “Go for it. Keep it. You can call the local turtle experts to get all the help you need.”

No sooner than I finished the debate, did that moment arrived. “Can we keep it?” a tiny voice chirped. Everyone held their breaths, waiting to hear my decision. “If we take it in, we need to understand that it isn’t a pet. The purpose of taking it in would be to act as stewards and raise it through the winter to give it a better chance of surviving.” I explained. A collective “Yeah!” filled the play ground. Little did I know, when we set foot on the playground that afternoon, that our school year would be changed forever. We are all the better for being the stewards of our guest turtle, Rocky.

Turtle Times

Today We Saw ... (May 27)

Team 2 Monday, February 22, 2010

Mother SNapper After Laying Eggs

More Mother Snapper

Mother Snapper's Spiky Tail

Mother Snapper's Sharp Claw

Mother Snapper's Strong Leg

Videos of Rocky

How We Found Rocky

Things We Had To Think About Before Keeping Rocky

Our Final Decision

Blog Archive

Search This Blog