What kind of class pet would be appropriate for a kindergarten class room? I figured fish are always a plus, but I remember having a hamster and loved it? What do you have in your classroom?
At Head Start I had a Zebra Finch. One year we got him a girlfriend and they had babies. The kids LOVED it. It was so neat to see the babies grow from little pink ugly (sorry) things into cute little fluffy birds. The mom bird and the dad bird took turns sitting on the eggs and taking care of the babies.....really neat stuff. Of course then I had to find homes for the little fellows....
I have two hermit crabs. I love them and the kids love them. They bring in extra shells for them all the time and give them small parts of their healthy snacks. Super easy to care for, have to illnesses that can be passed to children, and no fur to aggravate allergies. I love them!!!!
Recommendation- no rabbits. Males and females have a musky urine odor once they reach adolescence. The smell sticks in the classroom. I had a guinea pig this past year and she seemed so bummed without her partner. I'm thinking goldfish for the coming school year. Easier than mammals.
I have a bearded dragon. Her name is Faith. The kids feed her by hand(with tweezers) superworms and fix her salad. She is my personal pet and comes home with me on the weekends and breaks. She has a big tank at school and all appropriate lights. I have had rats, mice, hamsters, guinea pigs and gerbils. Guinea pigs are my favorite mammal. I love it when they wheek. Also, I have African clawed frogs from Insect Lore and 4 hermit crabs. Throughout the year I do many animal life cycles: frogs, ladybugs, butterflies and mealworms.
Thank you for all the ideas! Please keep them coming! I kind of wanted a rabbit, but after what you said KinderMissN, no thanks! What about hamsters?
I kind of had one unintentionally!! I found a nice quartz river rock which I scrubbed and boiled to use for Stone Soup. I kept it on my desk after that and the kids would pick it up and rub their hands over it (smooth rocks are rare in our area, most rocks are very rough). It made a pretty good pet, quiet and low maintenance and it never did escape!! :lol:
I had a red-eared slider turtle for several years. I just brought it home with me during long breaks. I've also had fish and hermit crabs.
If you are going to do a hamster, syrians (teddy bears) are the tamest. They are active when they are young but tame down very quickly. They need to live alone. You can train them to wake up at one certain point in the day and get healthy treats. The dwarf hamsters can bite and are very quick. I say stick with guinea pigs.
Since we are not allowed to have anything with hair or fur (!), I have had siamese fighting fish (betta) for many years and they are very easy to take care of. I have had hamsters and they do bite and can get rather stinky. They also always used to escape from their cages not matter what I did and were impossible to catch.
I have a classroom bunny and love him to death. He started to get that musky odor, but I just got him nuetered ASAP, and he's totally fine now. He's so friendly-he nuzzles into us and hops on our laps and licks our hands. You can cradle him like a baby and sing songs to him. He use to run around our feet in circles, which was hilarious, and he does these great bunny flips in the air when he's happy. I can't wait to have him with the kids again-he even has a leash so they can take him outside! Plus, they potty train themselves. Just set the cage on the floor, and they will hop back to go to the bathroom. So great!
I found a place that charged $50. If you have a local vet, they might do it for free, since it's a classroom pet. We had just moved here and it's a huge city-no one does anything for free here.
3 rats, intelligent and friendly and fairly easy to catch. Baby rats poop more and smell more. Older rats are fine.
We aren't allowed any reptiles so we've had fish and frogs for the most part. I'm not sure we'd be able to have birds either....now I'm curious to see what we could have. For Pisces Fish: "Stone Soup" is a story that is often done as a unit.
I have had both fish and a hamster. Fish were alright but I think school water is toxic somewhat because I couldn't keep fish alive for long. And I am good at taking care of things. If you do choose a fish, ask a local pet store for chemicals to treat tap water. The hamster was a family pet that was on loan but didn't make the best classroom pet. Since they're noctural the kids rarely saw it active during the day. I would have to wake it up and put it in a hamster ball to run around the room. I did not like weekly having to clean it up and it had to spend a holiday break at my house. The downside to having any type of pet is that it has to come with you over long weekends or holidays. Might want to think about having to haul whatever you get home and back several times during the year.
I was considering a frog or turtle this year. As an alternative to fish. We had a fish tank last year. I really want to expose the students to something new! Oh and I always have a ant farm. Thats fun to watch.
If you have a hamster, give it away to a student each summer and get a new one in the fall. They are way more active as babies, and will be more fun for the students. Plus, the student that gets to take it home will be thrilled! (with permission, of course)
My son's classroom has walking sticks, a bunny, and they just got done hatching baby chics and turkeys in their classroom.
I did not get a chance to read all of the posts, but I might just have a stuffed animal that they kids can take turns taking home.
I have a stuffed Clifford that the kids take home in a backpack. He is our first class stuffed pet. Then I have a stuffed hamster that goes home and a Knuffle Bunny. I include a journal so the parents and child can write about what they did overnight.
I have a betta fish & bought a gallon of water at the grocery store to use instead of the tap water. My para brought in tadpoles from her pond. She brings fresh water every few days so they get food. The kids love watching them develop & she will take them all home by the end of the year to release back into the pond.
Fish are way harder actually for me than our guienia pig. I trained the little ones on how to clean our guienia's cage. She is awesome. It is the fish that I have to deal with and the kids are so into Ellie the guienia pig, that they could care less about fish.
We aren't allowed to have anything besides fish, and I have never been able to keep them alive for long. My class has a Webkinz Bullfrog. These are stuffed animals you can buy at gift stores. They are interactive on the internet. You have to feed them each day, you have to play various games to earn money to buy food, clothes, etc., and you can have your pet get a job, go to school, etc. We take care of Hoppy each day after lunch for 15 mins. and before we go home for 15 mins. The students rotate taking Hoppy home for a night. (I sent a survey home to find out which students did/did not have computers with Internte- those that didn't went to the computer lab with my assistant periodically so they could get a chance to take care of her). My kids love it!!!!! It teaches them that they have to work in order to buy something for hoppy. If she is not fed or put to bed enough, she gets sick and has to go to the doctor. It's a great experience! I will be using her again next year and I am actually planning on buying a second one so that students get more chances to take them home.
Wow! With the webkinz pet you must be the most popular teacher in your building! What an awesome idea! I know all of my kids are thrilled with Webkinz! Wow what a great idea, how do you manage the password? Because you only get one password and if you send it home with one child each night- how do you ensure that child and only that child takes care of the webkinz- that another student is not taking tonights job away from the assigned student? I think that is a great idea!
We've had hamsters as classroom pets for the past 5 years. We were able to train the first one to pretty much be on our schedule. He was usually up and busy during the day and slept at night. He passed away after 3 years - that was a tough one for my first graders to take. Our new hamster has not been as easy to train and is completely nocturnal. I have the feeding/watering and cleaning of the cage as classroom jobs that some kids enjoy more than others. The hard part is bringing him home on breaks and long weekends because then I'm the one having to do the feeding and cleaning. :lol:
I had a long talk with my kids that they could only take care of Hoppy when they took her home. If they logged on when it was someone else's turn, then the other person would not be able to play. I did not have any problem with my kids doing that. I typed up a letter that went home explaining to parents what to do. It told them the website address, user name, and password. I laminated it, then put the letter and Hoppy into a small backpack for them. I bought some trading cards and a Webkinz buddy toy for Hoppy also that talks, and those items are in the backpack as well. Even the ones that don't have computers love taking it home and just playing with it. We just make sure they get a chance to take care of her periodically in the computer lab.
