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I just got back from working on the classroom. Paul and I put in some time, organizing, cleaning, setting up new activities and moving our new GIANT fish tank to the circle area with our lovely fish swimming about.
However, upon my arrival at school, I found out that during the break one of the other teacher’s at school thought that our salamander tank was empty and needed a tank for her classroom. As she was cleaning it out, she found the salamanders and was going to transfer them. She called me and I said, “NO, DON’T DISTURB THEIR HABITAT!!!” She said, “It’s too late but I’ll put them back.” Unfortunately she used some bleach on the rocks and she put them back in the tank and the salamanders died.
I’m heart broken. So much time and care went into this nearly year-long project. We got the eggs, which we though were frog eggs, we watched them hatch, we waited and waited as they grew into what we thought were tadpoles, we learned that what we actually had were salamanders, thanks to our brilliant scientist Mr. Asher Sage, and then we got to see them fully realized as full-grown salamanders. It was an exciting trip, I just wish we could have set them free in polliwog pond.
You can find our entire adventure here:
They’ve lost their gills and really look Salamander-ish now.
The other day as we were discussing our tadpoles, Asher said to me, “Michelle, frog eggs look just like salamander eggs. You know, I think we have salamanders.” I said, “really?” but in my head I was like, “Sure, salamanders, whatever, wishful thinking kid” (Asher actually says “whatever” to me at least once a day when I try to discourage a foreseeable “friskchievious” moment and he then decides to give in because I’m somewhat taller and have even redder hair!)
I did dismiss his notion or at least somewhat dismissed it. I’ve never raised tadpoles, I’m not so sure I’ve even seen that many. I took biology about a million years ago. But as I do on most evenings, I sit and ponder all the genius that is Mystery Bay, tell their stories, and laugh at the hilarity of our day-to-day and then do research to make sure that I stay at least one pond stone ahead of them. Hey, I’m the first one to admit they are smarter than me.
And guess what, I do believe Mr. Smarty Pants is right. I believe we are cohabitating with salamanders, well at least salamander larva for now. They don’t become actual salamanders until another metamorphasis occurs and they loose their gills and grow lungs.
Of course Asher is the one to figure it out, or think beyond the pond or believe with all his heart that we could be growing salamanders in our very classroom. Asher is the one who lined up all the eggs for us to compare, contrast and then find a way for us to care for them in our very own algae growing pseudo frog salamander habitat near you.
But just so you know, it was Mr. Asher that originally named the eggs we found “frog eggs.” I just went with it because as I said, “They have fresher brains.” And after they hatched, they really did look like tadpoles for a long time. But not so much now. Many other adults with varying science degrees saw them and didn’t say, “those are salamanders you silly fool” – I even posted photos here dear readers. But lets just enjoy what we have shall we and stop with the self-deprecation.
Hey salamanders, nice ta meetcha!
Last Wednesday, I thought all the tadpoles were dead. I spent a long while looking for them in the tank and never saw any sign of them. I was so bummed. We’ve been trying so hard to nurture our frog eggs into actual frogs. I didn’t tell the kids and yesterday I went over to the tank and there were two of them just hanging out. They still aren’t frogs (I hope they lose their tails before the end of the year) but they were most definitely alive. YEAH!!!
Are our tadpoles/froglets EVER going to become FROGS???
They use their legs and hands like frogs now but they still have tails and gills. What’s up? It’s going on six months now!
We’ve learned that cold-water tadpoles develop more slowly and our tadpoles don’t get a ton of sun in our classroom but it has been really hot around here lately.
We are ever so patient in this class but come on already – ribbit!
Here is our tadpole history:
Here’s to hoping for frogs before fall!
Our tadpoles now have front and back legs – it is so COOL to watch them grow and change!
We added a log to the tank so that when the tadpoles become frogs, they will have a place to go when they need to breathe oxygen.
We were barely out of the car and they were off. You’d think they’d never been outside before.
Little did I know what they knew – a giant mountain of stone lay directly ahead.
After our climb which was exhilarating, fun and nearly made the parent volunteers faint, we stopped for a snack and looked through our frog reproduction books. We were so hoping to see frog eggs at the pond.
And boy did we!
We even sorted them by developmental stages.
Sadly, in the middle of all our wonderful discoveries, Brigit got stung twice by a bee. It was very traumatic but after a while she let me take a photo for prosperity sake.
We were all getting a little haggard, so we had some lunch and then went for a hike on the Animal Track Trail.
We discovered animal prints, plants, flowers, mushrooms, nettles, the remedy for nettles.
And mud.
And Huck Finn.
And old friends, keeping pace to only the rhythm of their conversation.
The trail came out at ANOTHER rock wall. This was the most amazing climbing adventure.
We are going to try to go to Camp Long at least once every two weeks, if not weekly this summer. We’ll keep you posted on the frog evolution at the pond. We also have a frog exploration happening in the classroom that we’ll check in on.
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