Snakes

Brush up on your snake knowledge at How Snakes Work. This site describes snake characteristics, structure, diet, movement, and more, and contains helpful graphics to share with your students. On the Learn More page, find details on 28 snake-related topics and individual snake species.

There are five main families of snakes within the suborder Serpentes. Learn how scientists classify the different types of snakes and how they differ from each other.

Britannica has a terrific snake site that includes a discussion of the history of human-snake interactions. You'll also find a collection of images, videos, and diagrams that you may want to use with students.

Learn more about the four primary methods of snake locomotion in Snake Discovery's fascinating video, How Snakes Move! In addition to the four basic methods, scale design and weight redistribution also influence snake movement, as shown in this recent research from National Science Foundation.

Learn more about snakes in the United States and specifically about snakes in Idaho.

In Wild Kratts: Super Snake Sense, primary-grade students learn that rattlesnakes hunt by sensing body heat in their prey.

In DragonflyTV: Snakes, the crew does an investigation into snakes' prey preferences. The accompanying Teachers' Guide has suggestions for classroom experiments and activities in grades 3-5.

Snake Jaws: Connecting Structure and Function is an interactive science/literacy lesson for middle school grades.

Unhinged! focuses on snakes' adaptations to environmental conditions, particularly in the ways they find and eat food.

In Snake-Inspired Rescue Robots for middle grades and above, engineers design a search-and-rescue robot that mimics a snake's rectilinear movement.

From PBS's Nature, find video clips, images, and articles related to snakes.

Wildlife Express, a publication of Idaho Department of Fish and Game designed for student use, has several issues devoted to Idaho snakes. Teachers' Guides include lessons and hands-on classroom activities.

• Rattlesnakes
• Gopher Snakes student copy and Teacher's Guide
• Garter Snakes student copy and Teacher's Guide
• Rubber Boas student copy and Teacher's Guide

These grade-adaptable snake lesson plans include videos that focus on snake locomotion.

Venomous Snakes of North America is a lesson plan for grades 5-8 that focuses on the four venomous species found in the United States. Ambush Warriors is a lesson designed for grades 7-8 that focuses on adaptations that have allowed snakes to be successful all over the earth.

KidZone offers a snake resource site that you may want to check out. In addition to facts and a slideshow, you'll find classroom-ready activities, printable worksheets, puzzles, and booklets for younger students. A crossword puzzle, word search, and coloring pages are also available.

Find ideas for crafts and masks for snake-related art projects.

Britannica Kids: Snakes has leveled expository text for students in grades 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. For each level, there are media items for classroom use and related snake articles for students to explore.

DK Find Out is an interactive site designed specifically for elementary kids. By clicking on areas of interest, students will learn factual information in an appealing, photo-rich way.

Snake Facts for Kids is a good research source for grades 4-8 and includes a discussion about the various forms of snake locomotion.

If you have students who are interested in venomous snakes in the United States, you may want to encourage them to investigate the water moccasion/cottonmouth, copperhead, coral snake, or the iconic western diamondback rattlesnake. For amazing photos and videos of more exotic snakes, direct them to National Geographic Kids' Awesome 8: Super Snakes and Super Serpents That Slither.