Turtle Times: Team 3 Tuesday, February 23, 2010

2/23/2010

Morning Shift

When my team got to school I fed Rocky 5-10 Reptomin. Every time I fed him, he would stick his head up. Rocky always ate the Reptomin whole. He surprised me really good because he usually eats the Reptomin piece by piece. Rocky bit fake Rocky's foot. (Fake Rocky is our stone turtle statue.) He went to the bathroom for the first time on our shift.

Late Morning Shift

Rocky looked bigger than usual when I got in school. He has a longer tail now. He gobbled up the Reptomin like a monster. Rocky doesn't eat a lot of of blood worms now. I fed Rocky 15 Reptomin and one cube of dried worms.
Afternoon Shift (note to self- add Reptomin Outside Tank Video here)

Reptomin is Rocky's favorite food. Watch our video of Rocky trying to bite the Reptomin when it is outside of the tank. Rocky is not hungry today; he only ate 2 Reptomin. He didn't chomp at them very fast like he usually does. Then he fell asleep somehow. Today, I noticed that he loves to stick his head up, he does it all day. He bit fake Rocky's head. It was pretty cool. In the late afternoon I fed rocky about 15 or 20 Reptomin rocky must really like to stick his head up. He was doing it like every second.

Late Afternoon Shift

Rocky gobbled up his Reptomin like ... Frankenstein it was almost scary!!! But then it would pop out. Sometimes he keeps it in his mouth so it looks like a bone. Then Rocky snaps at it again like a crab and it disappeared.

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 3 Tuesday, February 23, 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

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