Reptile Shows in the Classroom
Looking for a fun and educational experience for your classroom? Book a Reptile Show by Massasauga Imports. We do reptile shows for all ages, including pre-school, elementary, and high school classes. If you teach at a college or university, please also feel free to contact us.
Our live reptile shows are conducted in 1-hour timeframes and consist of around 6-10 live animals. We can bring a variety of reptiles and amphibians, including different lizards, snakes, tortoises, turtles, and frogs.
Continue reading to see the details of how we will best fit into your classroom.
In addition to what is mentioned below, we are always happy to discuss different options so please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or requests.
1) reptile shows for pre-schools & childcare centres
We offer interactive presentations for pre-school classes and childcare centres. We understand that young children (1.5-2 years old) don’t always have the attention span to sit and listen to our performer speak for an hour straight, so we offer the option to split the timeframe into three sessions of 20 minute shows or two sessions of 30 minute shows for children in this age range. We do require that a minimum of 1-hour is booked.
Splitting our normal 1-hour format into smaller sessions ensures maximum engagement between our performer and the children. For shows with young children we also try to bring in sheds and hatched eggshells, when possible, to allow them the opportunity to learn and explore the biology of reptiles through their senses.
2) reptile shows for elementary school classrooms
Our elementary school presentations cover the biology of reptiles, which includes their natural habitats, diets and more. We will also cover the threats reptiles and amphibians face in the wild, as well as reptile conservation. Our performer will cater the level of information to the specific grade and level of understanding of the topic, ensuring it is a fun and engaging experience for all.
If your classroom is learning about specific topics related to reptiles, ecology or biology, we are happy to discuss the current classroom topics prior to the show, allowing us to select the animals to bring and topics to cover which best fit into your lessons.
3) reptile shows for high school classrooms
We generally cater our high school presentation to the current topic being taught in your class. We have reviewed the Ontario science and biology curriculums for grades 9-12 and we can deliver our presentations to best suit the teaching units covered in class. This is an excellent way for students to really take in the content they are learning in class and apply it to real-world examples. Below are just a few samples of how we fit into the curriculum and how we can provide an alternate teaching experience for high school science classes.
To fit the grade 9 biology or ecology units, both academic and applied, we will discuss the natural habitats of our reptiles and the role they play in their respective ecosystems, as well as the impacts humans have on the various species and ecosystems. We will bring animals that provide examples of human activity impacting the natural world, such as those that were introduced to an ecosystem by humans and are now invasive in other countries (ex. cane toad in Australia) or how disease impacting reptiles and amphibians spread due to human activity (ex. People spreading Snake Fungal Disease or Chytrid by not disinfecting clothing, footwear or equipment after travelling).
Additionally, for a grade 11 high school biology class studying genetic processes we can bring multiple animals of a single species that display different morphologies, such as ball pythons or bearded dragons, to discuss genetic variation, diversity and real-life examples of dominant, co-dominant and recessive genes. We can also cover reptile and amphibian diversity, as well as evolution.
These are just a few ideas and we are more than happy to discuss your ideas of how we can fit into your classroom.