Caring for critters

On the first day of holiday break, some students just couldn’t get away from Carroll’s Dawson Middle School.

Students attended the Krazy Kritterz camp where they got hands-on with all sorts of animals.

The school hosted the day-long camp Dec. 22-23 and attendees not only got personal with mammals, birds, lizards and snakes, but also learned more about caring for the critters.

Elementary-grade participants learned about the animals that they got to pet and hold from the soft fur of rabbits, ferrets and chinchillas to the feathered birds and smooth lizards and snakes.

“A lot of the animals kids see, they would not see otherwise,” life sciences teacher Zach Clapperton said.

In addition to holding the animals, the participants learned how to clean cages and feed some of the animals.

“Being able to hold the animals, for them it’s more of an educational experience,” Clapperton said.

In addition to the participants, some of Clapperton’s students in the care taking class helped lead the camp and taught the campers.

Fourteen-year-old Nicholas Tornow was teaching the younger children about the classroom’s ferrets.

“I’ve learned a lot about how they behave, their diet and how intelligent they are,” he said.

This story was originally published December 29, 2014 at 10:26 AM with the headline "Caring for critters."