| Shake, Rattle, But Don't Run: A Rattlesnake Warning
By Erin Horner |
1 The sound
was hard to miss. It was a very loud buzz. Where was it coming from?
Did someone have a rattle in his backpack? No, but someone had a rattle
on his tail! There was a rattlesnake in the bushes!2 Rattlesnakes are reptiles. They are long and narrow like many other snakes. But, they are different in one major way. Rattlesnakes are the only snakes with rattles on their tails. No other snake has this special tool. These rattles are made up of sections. Every year between one and three new sections grow onto the rattle. While in theory, a snake's rattle should tell you how old it is, it doesn't. Most rattles break off when they get too long. Usually even the oldest snakes only have between seven and eleven sections on their rattles.
3 Rattlesnakes use their rattles to warn people. A rattlesnake uses his rattle to tell humans and big animals to stay away. When a rattlesnake wants to warn someone or something, he begins to shake his tail. He shakes it very fast! A rattlesnake can shake his rattle up to fifty times per second. This makes a loud buzzing sound. The buzz can be heard up to sixty feet away.
4 If you find yourself in rattlesnake country, be sure to look and listen for these venomous snakes. If you see one shake, or you hear a rattle, make sure you don't run. Instead, back up slowly and walk away. This is exactly what the rattlesnake would want you to do.
Task 1: Go to Wallwisher and identify your first experience with a snake.
Task 2: Go to the FORM and answer the questions from the story!
Task 3: HW: Write a funny poem about a Ssssssnake!!! LINK 2MP Assignment 5
NOTE: Class 3/201 missed a week of class and deadline for Task 1 & 2 is December 6, 2012.
Deadline for Task 3 is December 12, 2012
