Educating kids w/ herps

reptigirl04 · #1 (**permalink**) 05-01-2004, 02:59 PM

Last year, i did a 'education reptiles' thing at a birthday party for a bunch of 4 and 6 yr. olds and their parents. I brought in everything i had and some other herps.
I guess one of the parents there really liked it, cuz now she wants me to do it for her kid's b-day party. This will be for a bunch of 1st graders.
I'm looking for ideas on how to improve it and make it more fun for the kids, but still be entertaining for the parents. Last year, the parents really appreciated the facts i told them about snakes and other herps around here...but all the kids wanted to do was touch them.
Does anyone know what topics or aspects of herps i should talk about...like just the basics- size, where they are from, what they eat...so i can target the entire audience?
Has anyone else done something like this? I went to an expo a few weeks ago, and saw dominic rizzo from rizzos reptile discovery pull off a show that all the kids and adults loved. He added alot of humor; It was really great.

NicoleRussell · #2 (**permalink**) 05-01-2004, 03:28 PM

Hey why not PM Steven Lee August? He does stuff like that all the time...also BW smith....and I think, Ed R might also do stuff like this.

louise · #3 (**permalink**) 05-01-2004, 03:50 PM

my nephew takes alot of his to the school every year for 1st graders or 2nd. im not sure what he does but the kids love it and they send him thank you pics. and he has pics of the kids and herps on his walls. im not sure what he does there but i know they enjoy it and ask him back every year. he is robroy on here. this year he even took the 3 foot alligator!

as for the parents..when they see how happy and how much fun thier kids are having they are already won over. i know this cause im a parent.

reptigirl04 · #4 (**permalink**) 05-01-2004, 04:10 PM

Alright thanks guys, i'll go ahead and pm them.

reptigirl04 · #5 (**permalink**) 05-18-2004, 03:29 AM

For anyone that is interested....It went great. there was about 14 kids and 8 parents. I was a little nervous, but asking the kids questions really helped. I think 3 of the parents were teachers, so i was a little nervous about slipping up and saying the wrong thing and having them correct me, but it went just fine. None of the animals acted up(which was really relieving).
I had my snakes, My friend (futureCROChunter) brought his herps and we also brought a few that we found while herping to show the audience what they might find around here. We informed them that reptiles can have bacteria such as salmonella and had antibacterial hand sanitizer there for all of them after the show. We let them touch alot of the animals and the kids really enjoyed my big boa (which is only 5 1/2 ft, but they thought it was big).
We got 2 offers for doing this again, one is for a summer camp and for a school. We are scheduled for the summer camp in august!! Also, this coming weekend we are setting up a room at a local church during a 'funfair'w/ all our herps and lots of papers and info on the herps of VA. Hopefully we'll be able to educate some people who maybe dont have any respect for herps, and get our point across that herps are not terrible creatures. I think this will be a big success, im really excited;D.
A big thanks goes out to BW, Robroy, Ed, and Steve!!!

snakemann6 · #6 (**permalink**) 05-18-2004, 03:46 AM

Repigirl04 I have done the education seminars in the auditorium/classroom setting atleast twice. What I focus on is not so much on the adults but more so the kids. Once you have struck the kids interest and got their attention anything is possible. One parent in the group is deathly afraid of anything that has more legs or no legs. I even convinced her to give my burm a hug. I have mostly done the educating while taking the snakes out for a little bit of fresh air. But if your heart is there you can actually make an honest living out something like that....

haroldo359 · #7 (**permalink**) 05-18-2004, 04:27 AM

i have thought about doing it... but am reluctant. i thought about doing it mainly for my daughter's class/school. two issues. i don't like people. i am uncomfortable around any kid i don't live with. any ideas?

JuliusSqueezer · #8 (**permalink**) 05-18-2004, 04:31 AM

I have a show Thursday with a couple of classes of 8th graders. I'm sure this is punishment for things I did in a past life.

haroldo359 · #9 (**permalink**) 05-18-2004, 04:35 AM

or the present.

did you volunteer for this, or is it part of the parole?

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