Sometimes our schedule works out nicely so that Katie Mei can attend Tadpole Time at the Flint Riverquarium. It's a little preschool program that takes place on the third Wednesday of the month and involves a craft project, a story, and a snack. There is always a theme involving some kind of animal from the aquarium and last week's theme was alligators. Since we love going to the aquarium anyway, it's always fun to attend Tadpole Time and then hang out to visit our aquatic friends for awhile afterward.
Katie Mei made a craft project to show the alligator's bumpy skin, which involved green-colored macaroni noodles glued to the back of a cardstock alligator. Note to self: glue sticks do not hold noodles well--go home with handful of fallen noodles and reglue with Elmers.
After the story and snack, Ms. Vicky brought out a real live American Alligator for the kids to pet. I had to resist the urge to shove little kids out of the way and cut in line so I could pet the alligator first! I do believe I was more excited than they were to touch the alligator. Silly kids...they have no idea how awesome that was! For the record, if you look closely at the photo you will see the alligator's mouth is held shut with a simple rubber band.
The alligator's skin did not feel as dry and rough as I expected. It was bumpy, but it was a moist feeling. Now wet, but cool and dampish. I supposed since they do hang out in water, we should not expect them to feel dry. She only let us touch him on the side of his belly, but I sure did want to stroke that long tail. Ms. Vicky said he weighed about 10 pounds, smaller than I expected, and she said he was a bit annoyed at being picked up and used his tail to slap her. I heeded her warned and didn't mess with his tail.
Merrilee tagged along, so she got to enjoy her second hands-on alligator experience. The first time was last summer at the homeschool program at the Riverquarium.
When Tadpole time was over, we got some close-up peeks at Moonshine, the albino alligator; Katie Mei's favorite alligator snapping turtle, Big Al; and her favorite rattlesnake under the tortoise exhibit. Those are her favorite animals at the Riverquarium, and we always have to visit them. (The photo of Big Al is from the Flint Riverquarium's website. I didn't have a recent photo. He's much bigger now--about 3 feet long!)
1 comment:
OK, this is way too cool! I would NOT have been able to restrain myself from rushing forward to touch it. How many people in the world can say that they pet an alligator? Thankfully it was not on your back deck like the baby snake. You DO realize that if there are baby snakes, there are adults around, Right?????
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