Skip to main content

New Pets

Image
By

In addition to our pet dog Scooby, we always seem to have some sort of critter around here....... 
 We have borrowed bunnies from the farm.......
We have borrowed and hatched chickens.
We have collected Monarch eggs and caterpillars... borrowing them for a short time to observe
and then we release the butterflies. (You will find oodles of posts about our caterpillar and butterfly experiences if you use the search box!)
We have raised frogs from eggs
The children absolutely love observing and interacting with the animals. So, after we completed our recent frog life cycle observations, we decided it was time for some new "pets."

We filled our aquarium up with water and let it sit for a few days to stabilize before we took a trip to the store for some fish! Now, when we were at the store, Dane decided that it would be cool to get some Neon Glo-Fish (danios) and some Zebra Danios.  It was difficult to decide, and we had to make sure that the fish we chose would be able to live peacefully together.



He also picked out a "freshwater" fiddler crab for our tank. Now, I am not going to tell you where we bought our first fish and crab..... but we were misinformed. Upon some basic research, fiddler crabs are not fully aquatic, and they do not survive for more than 3-4 months in fresh water. The store we purchased them from is a big box store and they are selling "freshwater" fiddler crabs and keeping them fully aquatic. If you happen to buy one, please make sure to do your research and provide the proper habitat for your critters!
So, rather than having one aquarium, we now have two.....

 The first one is a freshwater tank with our fish and snails.......
 The second has brackish water, a mix of sand and gravel and provides a "beach" where the fiddler crabs can bask under the aquarium light. They certainly do love to move the gravel around and to spend time in both the water and on land.  We have been learning a lot about fiddler crabs. Did you know that you can tell the difference between males and females by the claws? The males have one large claw. You will find both left and right clawed male fiddlers.... AND when they molt, they switch!

These little critters have definitely been busy, and they certainly do keep us entertained!

After our first fish, we took a trip to the pet store where we found all kinds of other critters!!!
Our friends had fun checking out the wide array of fish and other pets they had for sale.
We saw a lot of different pets, but stuck to our plan and filled our tank with fish and snails, So we bought some fresh water snails, some tetras, and some painted glass fish.

What critters do you have for your children to observe?
Check out this great post about children and pets over at the Seeds Network.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Few Ideas With Marker Caps (As Promised)

By
Yesterday, I hope I convinced you not to throw away your markers that "don't work." Today, I will share with you a few ideas for what to do with all of the caps. The possibilities are nearly endless, but here are a few of our recent creations: 1) A Leprechaun/Fairy Ladder/Rope Ladder: 2) #1 if not permanently secured can also double as a rope bridge: 3) #1/#2 can also be made into a train track for your homemade trains :). (No photo available) 4) You can use them as beads for a necklace: 5) You could make them into a wind chime. (No photo available). 6. You can use them as small manipulatives to count, sort, and make patterns with. (No photo available). 7) You could use them as playing pieces in your own homemade board game. (No photo available). 8) You could put them on a wire and glue them in place to make a twirling whirly-gig. 9) You could top them with a lid from a milk jug to make tiny tables or toadstools. 10) You could make them...
15 comments
Read more

Our DIY Light Tables

By
There has been a lot of buzz about light tables over at Teach Preschool on Facebook . Deborah has collected some great ideas for light table play and has been experimenting with making her own table over on the Teach Preschool blog.   I thought I would share with you our two light tables and how we made them. This first table is one that we put together with some scrap wood pieces, an old plexi-glass door from an entertainment center, and a couple of aquarium lights. Total Cost = $0. (We had everything on hand.)  The table needs a little bit of tweaking. (It is on my to do list).  Basically, we made a frame of wood around the plexi-glass and placed the lights under it. Our DIY skills in putting this together were far from expert, so the frame has a couple of gaps (and the reused wood is warped). We plan to try a new frame and use some caulk to seal any gaps.  We also plan to attach the lights to the side of the frame instead of just placing them on the f...
15 comments
Read more

"The Markers Don't Work!"

By
How may times have you heard, "Ms. (fill your name in here), this marker doesn't work!" I know I hear it all the time. Sometimes it is because our little friends forget to replace the caps, and sometimes the markers have just been "all used up!" What do you do with all those markers that just don't work? Please don't tell me that you throw them out, try this instead: First, sort your markers out. Put the caps in one container ( save those too, I'll show you what you can do with them in tomorrow's post) and the markers in another. I have a box for the markers that "don't work" for the children to place them into every time they run across one. You can also have the children help you test the markers periodically to sort out the ones that need to be removed from the "working set." When it comes time to use "the markers that don't work," we use a small sponge paint roller to roll water onto our card...
16 comments
Read more