Say hello to Colonel Schneke

This week Mrs Lewis gave us some very exciting news, we were going to get a pet snail. Not just an ordinary garden snail though, a giant African land snail! 

At lunch time on Wednesday Mrs Lewis received a very unusual parcel, the label said it had come from snails4u! All of the children gathered excitedly in Foxes classroom to find out what it was. There was great excitement when the children realised it was our snail! Nischal thought "it's tiny!" but soon realised it would grow when it has lots to eat. Miss Sullivan asked the children what it would eat there were shouts of "apples" "bananas" "lettuce" and "not oranges or lemons" from the expert malacologists (people that study snails).

Archie and Reona set to work making the snails new home nice for it to live in, after all the snail had had a long and probably bumpy journey through the post. Archie told everyone that the compost needed to be damp. We then realised we didn't yet have a name for our snail.

The children went off in their phonics groups and listed their suggestions for names. Everything was suggested, from Sparkles and Princess to Turbo and Lightening. There were a few suggestions that caught our eye, Mr Snail, Schneke and Colonel Snail. Mrs Lewis and Miss Sullivan liked the idea of combining these names as schneke is snail in German. We gave the children the opportunity to vote to decide the name and the final decision was between Colonel Schneke and Mr Schneke. Colonel Schneke won the majority vote. We then left Colonel Schneke to settle into his new home.

On Friday morning Colonel Schneke was being very active. We have found that his favourite spot is to hang upside down on his roof! Nischal and Ruth asked if we could get the Colonel out for a bit. Ruth told Nischal they had to have clean, wet hands to touch him and off they both went to wash their hands. Soon most of the Foxes were gathering around the table desperate for a chance to hold Colonel Schneke. There were squeals of excitement and joy when he was placed on most of the hands but a few children (and Mrs Lewis) weren't a fan of the slimy body. Colonel Schneke was particularly fond of Megan's hand and slithered all the way up her fingers. He was feeling particularly hungry and was being hand fed lettuce by the children who were fascinated to watch him actually eat it.

The children were very calm and gentle holding Colonel Schneke and some kept coming back for more. When they had finished holding him the children used antibacterial hand gel before then going to wash their hands again with soap and water.

We are all looking forward to finding out more about giant African land snails and watching Colonel Schneke grow.