Keeping track of food,...

Hi ya'll ....Leslie from Science Gal here. 


Just wanted to share with you something my students came up with recently...a way to keep track of how much Squirtle was being fed.

Hmmm....let me back track a bit. One day last week, one of my students noticed that Squirtle was shedding a bit on his neck. He asked me why and naturally, I had no clue...so he googled it. (By the way is google a verb now?)

He found out that it could be happening because we were feeding Squirtle too much protein. Again, let me back track....when we first got Squritle in January the turtle went into hibernation b/c my classroom was so cold. (yes, it is true...) He didn't eat for the first two months I had him... Then with the help of our maintenance worker and water specialist, we moved him from a dry tank to a wet tank. Guess what? Squirtle woke up! Tom also suggested that we feed him worms...as Squirtle kept turning up his nose at fish and shrimp that the pet store had recommended. He loved them...once he started eating, we started feeding him A LOT....

Each morning the kids would clamor to feed him and we did...in fact, I think we overfed him! I started having the students go outside in the morning and dig for earthworms for free food...there are several children who absolutely love this! Squirtle also decided that he liked the shrimp (finally) as well as some turtle treats that I picked up at the store.

But after we googled the shedding incident, we decided we needed to have a system. The students and I talked about it and came up with this:

Now, every time we feed him we write it on the board. We have streamlined it to mornings only and are noticing a happy turtle...and the shedding??? Hopefully this will help us out too!

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