Flood of fun

During the Wetlands Festival, students at Citrus Springs Elementary enjoyed hands-on exercises while they learned about water, Florida's Indians and animals.

By PAULETTE LASH RITCHIE

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 4, 2000

CITRUS SPRINGS -- The little pre-kindergarten children with the strangely blue knees could hardly contain themselves behind the little white, slightly trampled fence that separated them from the white and the brown ducks.

Earlier, they had been crawling on the sidewalk creating chalk drawings. The pictures were supposed to depict things having to do with water. Blue was a popular color.

Children in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade at Citrus Springs Elementary School moved frequently through the hallways last Friday and visited displays, talks, shows and activities during the Wetlands Festival, the Rhythm of the Rivers.

The annual Wetlands Festival was funded by a grant written by curriculum specialist Michelle Bundy-Preston to Southwest Florida Water Management District.

One of the first displays visible to a visitor was the Cracker Cow Camp, set up right in front of the school. Rod and Doris Miner bring their collection of skins, skulls, tools, a buckskin whip and wooden buckets to schools, festivals, rodeos and fairs. Miner, a Floridanative, has permits for his endangered animal parts.

Nicole Dupler, 9, a third-grader who had just seen Miner's display was impressed with the skins. "I thought the horse skin was interesting." she said. "I felt bad for those animals (referring to the ones missing their skins), but the people survived with the food."

Alden Richie, 8, was more taken by what he had learned about a snake, or rather what was left of a snake. "It was cool how, when you put the snake in boiling water, the backbone comes out, if you take the skin off before you put it inside boiling water," he said.

Across the grass from the cow camp the children learned about the history of Florida's Indians at a Seminole Indian camp. Down the sidewalk from that was the sidewalk chalk drawing.

Elsewhere students were making tempura paintings of rivers, rolling clay into river animals, beating on drums, listening to stories and creating water cycle murals. Henry Smith from the Crystal River State Archaeological Site was on hand to tell the children about Indian mounds.

"Kids for Cubs," a presentation by Habitat for Bears, provided information about the local bear population. And the Florida Power Mariculture Center instructedstudents about fish and fish reproduction.

One of the most popular stops was Room 107, where representatives of the Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park had live animals, some of which the children were allowed to pet. There was a screech owl, a great horned owl, a baby alligator, an opossum and an indigo snake.

Fourth-grader Adam Tullis, 10, enjoyed the very last thing the children were carefully allowed to do as they left. "I like the part we get to pet the opossum, the indigo and the alligator," he said.

Classmate Michael Yerman, 10, seemed to find out something about snakes and alligators he didn't know. "I never thought reptiles were soft or anything," he said.

Ashley Fahy, 10, from the same class, just feels better about the critters now. "I got the feeling they weren't really very scary and harmful," she said. "But now that I went there I know that they're not harmful."

Josh Petellat, 9, also in fourth grade, dismissed a myth he held about the snake. "I used to think the indigo snake was poisonous," he said, "but it isn't."

Principal Lane Vick called the day "a celebration of Florida wetlands. It's a marvelous way to learn," she said. "The kids love this. It's a fun day. It really is."

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