Oh My Newt!
A Sierra Newt found by students in our local spring fed stream. photo by Dawn
In just a few weeks, our fall classes will begin. Our first "Fur, Feather, Skin, or Scales" critter of the year is the newt—specifically, the Sierra Newt, which is native to our local area. The Sierra Newt closely resembles the California Newt found in Southern California.
Over the course of four weeks, we will explore this fascinating amphibian. You might wonder if there's enough to learn about newts to fill twelve lessons. The answer is yes! In fact, Dr. Lee Kats at Pepperdine University has spent 30 years studying newts. Dr. Lee Kats has been PIT tagging newts since 1991, and some of them live for over 30 years.
You might also question why we're learning about newts in the fall when they are most commonly seen in the spring. The reason is that most of our students are familiar with the adult newts seen in the spring, but very few know what a juvenile newt looks like. Juveniles are only found from late summer through October.
Below, I share our first story and lesson about the newt, which introduces the juvenile newt and the newt's life cycle. I prefer to take a Slow Learning approach to learning. In our fast-paced world, Slow Learning is akin to the Slow Food movement. Let’s take our time to learn. Let’s spend an entire month on just the newt, allowing ourselves to wonder, ask questions, and discover answers together. While I could write a single story that covers everything, it wouldn't leave space for students to wonder about what happens next, what makes the newt special, and why. Additionally, absorbing and processing information takes time. It takes time to do activities and experience learning with not only our minds but our bodies too.
Here are some of the newt topics we will explore during the month:
Terrestrial vs. aquatic phases in a newt’s life
Threats to newts (invasive species like crayfish and mosquito fish are a huge threat to newts, as are cars, loss of habitat and poor water quality)
Permeability of newt skin
Toxins in newts
The arms race between newts and garter snakes
Regeneration of body parts
Mating balls
Witches' lore and legends about newts
We will conduct experiments with eggs to understand the role of skin, search for juvenile newts, explore terrestrial habitats, and much more.
A Story… About a Newt
Once upon a time, not so far away and not so long ago, there was a forest filled with animals. There were bears, owls, foxes, squirrels, and many more critters, large and small. It was the Ohmapi Forest, and the animals were known as woodland animals. Not all the woodland animals were wild; some were domestic animals like Daisy the Beagle, Cocopuff the Rooster, and Forest the Cat. All these animals got along quite well. Of course, the predators sometimes ate the prey, but no one took it personally in the forest. They all understood and respected the food web.
One day, one of the domesticated animals, a dog named Daisy, was napping in the forest. Dogs nap a lot, and Daisy was no different. In case you aren’t familiar with Daisy, let me tell you a bit about her. She is approximately 18 inches tall to the top of her head, about as high as the seat of your dining chair. She has long, floppy ears and is a mix of white, black, and brown. Her nose is black and wet, and it is her superpower. That nose of hers can track a scent that is several days old for up to 130 miles! She and her buddy, George the Bear, often have smelling and tracking contests. Who do you think wins?
So back to the story. One day, Daisy was napping. She had found a cool place in the forest, a very shady spot under the big-leaf maples, oaks, pines, and incense cedars. To make it a bit more comfortable and cool, Daisy scratched away the top layer of dry leaf litter, revealing the moist leaf litter and humus below. “Ahhh,” said Daisy as she lay down in the nice, cool spot on a hot September day.
Hours passed as she snoozed the afternoon away. Eventually, she woke up and, feeling a bit thirsty, walked down to the creek for a sip of water. As she slurped up the cool, spring-fed water, she scanned the creek bed for caddis fly larvae, predaceous diving beetles, giant water beetles, dragonfly larvae, and fish. She saw at least half a dozen caddis fly larvae and wondered if any were descendants of Caddis, a friend from the previous summer.
Then something unusual caught Daisy’s eye. That says a lot because if you have ever explored aquatic critters, you know there are a lot of unusual-looking things in the water, from larvae that look like worms with giant fringed holes to giant water beetles the size of a mouse carrying eggs on their backs. When Daisy saw this unusual thing, at first, she thought it was a fish. It was about the same size as the tiny fish that lived in the creek, about 2-3 inches long—about as long as your pointer finger. It was greenish-brown with two black stripes and some black dots. It camouflaged well with the water and sand. The unusual thing about it was that it had legs and a wide head with a fringe like a lion’s mane. Daisy stared for a while, trying to make out what it was. She even put on her glasses to get a better look. Seeing that it had a wide, almost smiling mouth and big eyes—which, to Daisy, seemed like good indicators that this creature was friendly—Daisy said, “Hello. I don’t recall seeing you in this creek before. Are you new here?” The creature lifted its eyes to meet Daisy’s and then lay very still, motionless. Daisy said, “I won’t hurt you. My family feeds me well, so I don’t eat the woodland creatures. My name is Daisy. I am a dog. What is your name and what are you?” The creature again looked up at Daisy and said, “My name is Taricha Sierrae. I am a sierra newt.” Puzzled, Daisy said, “You don’t look like a newt. I see newts in this creek every spring, and they are brown and orange. You are tiny and green and have a mane.” At that, Taricha was confused. Taricha thought she knew what she was but began to question herself, wondering if perhaps something was wrong with her if this very smart-looking dog wearing glasses was questioning her. Taricha began to cry. Oddly enough, even though Taricha was in the water, Daisy could tell she was crying. It made Daisy uncomfortable when anyone cried. She began to panic and told Taricha it was okay that she didn’t need to cry and that they could fix it and figure out exactly what Taricha was. Daisy ran off to find help. Daisy thought, “Hmm. Who can help me with this? Let’s see, Owl is super smart and will know what Taricha is for sure, but Owl is sleeping. George the Bear is big and cuddly and could comfort Taricha, but then again, at this time of year, George is so hungry he might eat Taricha. And we definitely don’t want George to eat a newt (more on that in future stories)” Daisy thought some more. And then it came to her. The perfect person for this situation was Cracker Plus the Mouse. Cracker Plus was besties with Caddis, the caddis fly larva, and spent a lot of time at the creek last year.
Daisy ran to fetch Cracker Plus, and when they returned to the stream, Daisy pointed at Taricha and said to Cracker, “Well, what do you think? Is Taricha a newt or a fish of some sort?” Cracker Plus said confidently, “Daisy, Taricha is indeed a newt.” Taricha let out a sigh of relief that came out like bubbles. Daisy said, “But Cracker, she looks like a fish with a mane and legs. She is not orange.” Cracker said, “Daisy, newts are amphibians, like frogs. They hatch from eggs in water, spend about six weeks as larvae, and then transform into adults. Taricha is the larval form of a newt.” Daisy asked, “Will she go through a pupa phase like the butterflies and the dragonflies?” Cracker said, “No, she is not an insect. Insects do that. Amphibians don’t. Instead, she will gradually transform and begin to look more like the newts you see in spring. Her feathery gills, what you refer to as her mane, will be reabsorbed, and she will learn to breathe air and use her lungs.” Taricha asked, “How long until I become an adult?” Cracker said, “You look like you will be an adult pretty soon. Newts are juveniles for about 3-4 months. Pretty soon, you will metamorphose. It will take about two weeks for your skin to turn brown and orange and for you to start breathing with your lungs.” Taricha was quite relieved to know that she was indeed a newt after all. And with that, she slightly opened her mouth, and when a delicious mosquito larva wiggled past, Taricha gently sucked it in and the mosquito larva floated right into her open, smiling mouth. Yum.
photo from CalHerps
The Newt Lesson
After listening to the story, our students will walk down to the creek and look for newts. Juvenile newts are so well camouflaged that it may take a while to find one and we may not find any. We may find other things to explore.
After a good while spent exploring and discussing our discoveries, the students will spend some time documenting their learning in a language arts lessons. For the first graders their language arts lesson includes drawing a picture of a juvenile newt and learning the letter N through body movements and drawing on paper. For grade 2, the students draw a juvenile newt, revisit the letter N and, through dictation, write a 1-2 sentence summary from the story.
For grades 5-7, students will read an additional printed page about newts. Their main lesson page will look similar to the image on the left. It will include the lifecycle of the newt and a summary paragraph about the newt.
The math geography lessons will also feature the newt but would look quite different, as you might guess.
If you are curious about the Sierra Newt, there is more great info at https://californiaherps.com/salamanders/pages/t.sierrae.html
And to see a timely talk (July 2024) by Dr. Lee Kats go to: https://www.youtube.com/live/30sh8IlLJNc. The talk doesn’t start until about 30min into the video.