What's it like to molt like a snake?

Questions

What happens when a snake molts or loses its skin?

What you need:

• Sleeping bag
• Your body
• Banana
• Raisins

Experiment #1 - What to do:

1. Lay your sleeping bag down on the floor.
2. Crawl inside your sleeping bag. Zip it up.
3. Without using your hands, try to wiggle out of the sleeping bag.

What is happening?

You just had an experience similar to what a snake goes through when it slinks out of its skin. We call this molting. Most reptiles molt a few times a year. By the way, what is a reptile? Reptiles are animals such as snakes, lizards, turtles, alligators and crocodiles. They are cold-blooded, with scaly, dry skin. They also are what we call vertebrates. That means that they have backbones.

Experiment #2 - What to do:

1. Just for fun, peel back just a little bit of a banana's skin.
2. Take two raisins and push them into the banana to be like a snake's eyes.
3. Slowly keep peeling back the banana. This is kind of like molting, too!
4. Eat your snake!

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