It started today with a simple story of what I saw at my farm on the weekend. I asked the Kiddoes if they remembered what animals can do in order to survive winter. I was pleased when they responded, "hibernate, migrate or adapt". I then proceeded to remind them of our first "5 clap" word we discovered which was hibernaculum. The Kiddoes remembered this was what a ball of snakes were called when they hibernated together. Well, I explained to the room, that with the warm weather, the snakes at our farm were waking up and sunning themselves on the lawn. I told them I realized this when I was walking down to the barn and stepped on a hibernaculum. This produced lots of laughter from the Kiddoes. When they asked what I did, I responded, "screamed!". "Why", they enquired? I explained I didn't know much about snakes and because of that, I was scared. One Kiddoe wisely pointed out, "well... if you know about them, then you won't be scared anymore. Just like the fire drill, if we have a plan and know what to do, we won't be scared!" Thus, our project began. First we drew a chart and labeled it with "What We Know", "What We Want To Know" and "What We Have Learned". This is commonly known as a "KWL" chart.

We then had a discussion about how we were going to gain this information.

You may have noticed the name "Kent" on the paper by the word expert. This is actually referring to my Dad. He has been in our room numerous times this year with the Outdoor Education Department talking to our Kiddoes about many amazing things. When I asked why they thought Kent was an expert, one replied, "because he talks to us about animals and the outdoors, so he must be an expert!" We then decided to call Kent on speaker phone. He was a great sport and has agreed to come in and speak with the Kiddoes about garter snakes.

We are excited to begin this project. We will keep you posted about everything we learn!