Bedford Hills Kindergartners Get Hands-On Lesson About Animals and Their Habitats

“Why does it have orange eyes?” a Bedford Hills Elementary School kindergartner asked as she pet an Eastern box turtle.

“I love that question!” answered Alex Mintz, who was visiting from Westmoreland Sanctuary to teach students about animals and their habitats. Mintz told her that male Eastern box turtles have orange eyes while females have brown eyes.

“He’s a boy!” she said with excitement.

There were many moments like this throughout the presentation when students asked questions that sparked their curiosity or answered questions with enthusiasm.

Mintz brought a Madagascar hissing cockroach, an Eastern box turtle, a corn snake and a rabbit with him and talked with students about the animals, their habitats, and how they’re all a part of an ecosystem.

“An ecosystem is when everything is connected,” he explained, discussing how bugs help plants grow and plants feed some animals while those animals feed bigger animals.

“If there were no bugs out there, would the birds go to ShopRite?” he asked.

“No! They don’t have money!” a student shouted out while classmates giggled at the thought of seeing a bird in line at the supermarket.

“That’s right,” Mintz said, smiling with them. “Balance is important in nature. It’s not good if we have 100 birds and only one worm.”

The presentation was broken up by moments when students got to touch the animals they had just learned about.

“None of the animals I brought are going to hurt you. None will sting or bite, so you don’t have to be scared,” Mintz said.

He coached students on how to pet each of the creatures and gave them time to work themselves up into touching them if they wanted to.

“What do you notice? What are some of your observations? What are you curious about?” he asked.

Students had a lot to say.

“He has claws!”

“Why is his tongue out like that?”

“I like her fluffy ears.”

“How much fur can she grow?”

Mintz answered their questions and talked more about their observations. When it was time to go, he encouraged them all to pay close attention when they go outside and to think about how everything is connected.