GECKO VISIT

Today Chelsea's dad, Rick came to class to show us (and Room 3) the new gecko he has. Rick works for DOC (Department of Conservation) breading and caring for our endangered New Zealand gecko and skinks. He brought some of our old favourites from last year and some very interesting unfamiliar breeds. They were a number of very cute babies that we got to see catch and eat their dinner of live flies! That was sooooo cool!

There were a variety of breeds of baby gecko. 

We learned a lot of new facts about NZ gecko and skinks. We remembered a lot from last time, like NZ gecko and some skinks are cold blooded but are unique in the way that they have live births and do not lay eggs! They do not blink but lick their eyes to clean them and keep them moist. Our geckos are endangered because of cats, rodents and poison (mainly for grass and plants).

Jewel Gecko 

This is one of Rick's new ones. It looks like a baby crocodile and Miss K was not keen to hold it, no not at all!

The Wellington and Auckland Green Gecko were much more Miss K's style!

Ben really liked the gecko and he was allowed to have one crawl on him. Ben wasn't scared at all! 

We all really enjoyed seeing and learning about these awesome creatures. Thank you to Rick Brosnan for bringing them in and teaching us all about them.
Fearless Four have completed their cooperative learning tree-maps with the facts that they have learned and are beginning to create some simile poems about the gecko. We will post some on here when they are completed.

The crocodile one!

I like this one, it isn't smooth like the other gecko but feels rough like sandpaper. Gecko like the heat (because they are cold blooded) and lay as flat as they can to get as much of their body onto the warm surface, to absorb the heat. This one crawled through my hair and stopped on top of my head!

Chelsea is an expert at looking after gecko and skinks and she knows HEAPS of facts about them. The people who were in her fact-sharing group were sooooo lucky!!