Longview Welcomes New Lizards

Published April 29, 2010

The Longview Lizards are living up to their name these days. On April 18, Longview Elementary School in Spring Hill welcomed into the world the first of several freshly-hatched bearded dragon lizards.

The lizards are part of an annual project at Longview which helps students learn about living organisms. It might sound strange until you consider the fact that the school's principal, Dr. Jonathan Ullrich, is a reptile enthusiast who used to breed lizards. He says this is something the school has been doing since it opened in 2007.

"It's a fun learning experience for the students," said Ullrich, who explained that it typically takes lizard eggs six to 12 weeks to hatch. "The students come up with all these great questions about the lizards. It really captures their imagination."

This year's project began in February when the school lizard, named Houdini, laid over two dozen eggs. Once the eggs were laid, Dr. Ullrich and his staff dug them up and placed the eggs in two small containers filled with soil. The containers were then divided between two kindergarten classrooms and stored in incubators.

One of lizards, nicknamed "Bolt" tries to make a run for it in Amy Bennett's classroom.
"This is a project the kids really enjoy," said Ullrich. "It's great because they have all these different questions they think about over the weeks. For instance, one student wanted to know if the lizards would be crying when they hatched because that's what his baby brother did when he was born."

In addition to asking questions, the students learn to compare the lizard eggs to other animal eggs and discuss the differences. They also enjoy keeping track of the days, weeks and months until the eggs finally hatch.

That moment finally came April 18 when the lizards in Amy Bennett's class began to break out of their shells. Fortunately, it takes lizards a long time to hatch, which gave the students at Longview a chance to observe the special event.

"The eggs started hatching on a Sunday night," said Ullrich. "But what will often happen is the lizard will stick its head out and then fall asleep. So it usually takes them a day or two to completely hatch."

Ten days later, the second group of lizards began to hatch. Once they've all worked their way out of their shells, Ullrich says he will begin the process of looking for someone to purchase the lizards, which can live for 10 to 12 years. The money that's made from the sale will pay for next year's project, helping to carry on this unique tradition at Longview Elementary.