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I should have never got a class pet
I thought a class pet would be fun. So I got 4 fish and we had a tragic and disgusting death of all of them this last week.
So today I had the kids (Grade 3) write me letters to convince me we needed a new classroom pet. Well my delightful children had some very interesting suggestions. We had a couple hamster suggestions, several suggestions for a turtle, one suggestion for a ferret, one for a rabbit, two for a cat, and one boy wanted me to buy... get this... a horse because it makes milk and it can run fast. Not exactly what I was looking for in a class pet.
So I've been researching pet turtles and they look expensive. I don't know how I feel about hamsters and I'm definitely not having a ferret or a rabbit.
My brother has tried to tell me that because I got them a pet to start the year I cannot pull the pet plug now. I'd be okay with some plastic fish...
Re: I should have never got a class pet
You need an ant farm
cheap and easy and somewhat educational.
Or what about those hatching fish kits... did you ever do that in school? Is it a coastal thing? But we had special fish tanks that housed salmon eggs and we watched them go through the phases of development, and then released them into the rivers when they were big enough. That's probably expensive though...
Ant farm?
Don't do a turtle, I think they're a lot more work then people expect.
Hamsters, rabbits, and ferrets are all a lot of work.
Maybe the Humane Society or Animal Control would come in and do a talk about why you need to carefully choose the right pet and why pets don't like to live in classrooms?
However as Mel mentioned, they are GROSS... Very stinky. You have to wash the tank and washing the tank is a stinky mess, especially as they get bigger. We bought 2 when I was in grade 1, one of them only lived a couple years but the other one was still living when I moved away from university!! My brother sold it to a friend of his so not sure if it's still alive. Anyways by that time it was over 1 foot in diameter and was in a 50 gallon tank. Not exactly an easy classroom pet!! I've heard they can live 50 years.
Birds can live a very long time too. And they chirp.
Birds are NOT an option as I am petrified of them. They knew not to even ask.
The life of the turtles did scare me a little bit. I definitely do not want to be commited to anything other then my husband for the next 50 years and the cleaning doesn't sound too attractive. Maybe we'll have to get more fish.
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These, although I didn't realize until I read one review that you need to be careful where you get your ants or they may kill one another.
http://www.discoverthis.com/giant-ant-farm.html
http://www.nature-gifts.com/ant-farms.html
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Fish were always a disaster in my classrooms. They always died.
I would suggest rats as I have been a rat owner for 8 years. They are incredibly sociable, intelligent, and lovable. They will play with you and will come when called.
I never left my rats at school but I did bring them in often and the kids loved them. It was also a good learning experience for them to understand that not all rats are "yucky" or live in the sewers.
I also hatched ducks once. That was great fun and a huge learning experience. However, they are hard to keep once hatched and make huge messes. It was also hard to find homes for them afterward.
Turtles aren't recommended because of salmonella. Many schools I am familiar with (in the States) will not allow turtles in classrooms because of the risks.