Oviparous Animals

I can almost guarantee that I didn't learn what an oviparous animal (animal that hatches from an egg) was in kindergarten but Emily's class has been studying them this spring.

They had praying mantis eggs and once they hatched they released them in the garden. They have chick eggs that they are turning each day.  Each day they write in a journal and tell about what is developing that day.  They have caterpillars that have now formed chrysalis'.  They also have lady bug larvae. They are learning so much!

Emily also had to do a project on an oviparous animal of her choosing.  She chose a platypus.  She thought it was cool because it is one of the only mammals that are oviparous.

We did our research and Emily had to fill out a graphic organizing of lots of facts about the platypus.  This ended up being about 5 pages of writing.  Then we had to build a diorama that included the life cycle, habitat and diet of the animal.  Emily worked so hard.  She was very proud of her project.  Next week they will have a living museum and they will present their projects to parents and older children in the school in small groups.

You can see that the platypus makes it's burrow on the lake shore or river bank.  It finds it's food on the bottom of the water.  Then it brings it to the surface.  It eats worms, shellfish, mud and gravel.  It uses the gravel to break  up it's food because it has no teeth.  You can see a nest of eggs and babies.  The babies are the size of lima beans when they are born so we used painted lima beans for the babies.

Great job, Emily!