Cultivating Minds Without Losing My Own

Join me on my Adventures in Elementary Education

Creating A Home for Hedgie

January4

Tomorrow is the day!!!!!  My mother, may daughters, and I are driving to North Jersey to pick up our class pet hedgehog.  Everyone is so excited!  OK, so how did I decide on a hedgehog as a class pet?  Well, we have been spending the bulk of the second marking period learning about animals, life cycles, habitats, and food chains.  Each year our district offers classroom teachers the opportunity to apply for Math and Science mini grants for up to $300.  On a lark, I put together a proposal for the purchase of a hedgehog and supplies to create a habitat for it as a culminating activity for our animal unit.  I never really believed they would actually approve this CRAZY idea.  They did. 

What followed next was a lot of research on our part.  Students researched habitat, feeding, and care needs.  I researched breeders.  We settled on purchasing our hoglet from Jersey Hedgehogs in Union, NJ.  (www.jerseyhedgehogs.com)  My students created the following shopping list for me to build our habitat:

Habitat Shopping List:

Large clear Tupperware container with a lid

Exercise wheel

Hiding Dome

Water Bottle

Food Dish- heavy enough not to be tipped over

Cat toys

Bedding material- fleece so we don’t have to keep buying it,  just wash it

Once I purchased all our materials, we set out about making our habitat for the classroom (I made a separate vacation home for our hedgie at our house for evenings, weekends, and summers).  

 First we needed to drill ventilation holes to keep the cage well ventilated and smelling relatively fresh.  To do this, we heated the plastic using my hair dryer before drilling to prevent cracking and make the drilling a little easier.

 Then we measured two inches from the top and made a series of dots four inches apart where we would drill our holes.

We drilled the holes and smoothed out the surfaces.

Then we drilled four holes in the top of the container to use to help us cut out a top ventilation area that we covered with screen material securing it with hot glue.

Once we  were done, we measured and cut fleece to line the bottom of the cage.  We made 2 coverings to we would always have a clean one to replace the dirty one. 

Finally we positioned the water bottle, food bowl, sleeping dome, wheel, and toys in our habitat to make sure it would all fit nicely.  We even added out current Hedgie mascot to test it out.

 

 

 

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