a is for alligator (year 3, week 7)

It was so hard to find activities for alligators!  For some reason, the majority of the world believes that alligators and children don't mix- I wonder why? (wink).  Dragonfly requested alligators, and they were our first reptile study of the year.  We also focused on the North American swamps.

This week, we learned that alligators are reptiles and compared reptiles to what we know about mammals.  We watched videos where alligators were fed and talked about how they are apex predators and carnivores.  We learned that a group of alligators is called a "congregation," and watched a Wild Kratt's episode about how crocodiles care for their young.  One of our videos told us that alligators have 80 teeth (reminds me of Jurassic World- "we need more teeth") and counted groups of 10 to get to 80.  We even watched a video where a man was training his hatchling.

This week was one of my predetermined #HowiSafari campaign weeks, so we got to play with a toob of Alligators.  We used the hand-painted figurines to create a sensory bin.  I used about a tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder and water to make a muddy swamp.  The water smelled so good, cleaned up easily, and added so much to our Alligator toob.

Printables
- alligator science pack
- graphic organizer
- SNAP game

Ideas
- alligator small world

Video
- alligator farm
- kids holding an alligator
- training a pet alligator



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