Class Pet Project

Again, one of the best projects that has happened was something that happened organically. 

Last week, I had my discussion questions all ready for my morning meeting, but the students came in all excited because they had heard that the 4th Grade was "adopting a Panda" (and became convinced that the panda was actually going to be next door!) and wanted to have a class pet. 

I explained we had to ask the principal what the rules for pets were, how much it would cost for the pet and all the supplies/fundraising, and the pros/cons different types of pets. 

We had our 3rd Grade Arcade last Friday. We raised $107. The principal told the students to write her letters about what we wanted. We broke into 3 groups to write letters. 1 group wrote to convince her that a hamster was the best pet. Another group wrote about how a gecko would be a good pet and one student wanted to write a letter about a rabbit. Writing letters for a genuine audience made the project so much more interesting. After 30 minutes, they were still coming up with more reasons. 

The Hamster a good pet? Its cute. We could read to it during reading time. We could do our social studies reports to it. We could sing nursery rhymes to it. We could build a cardboard house for it. We could teach it tricks. We could call him Caine like the boy who made the cardboard Arcade. We could name him Muffin. Fluffy. Deddy.

The Gecko would be a good pet? It could eat all the mosquitos, we could learn science from its skin. Its coldblooded so we would need a heat lamp or heat rock. We could draw pictures of it and write poems about it. We could make it an obstacle course. We could name him Gax. 

One reason that a rabbit would make a good pet? Afterwards we could shoot it and eat it. I guess the same reason a chicken or a pig would make a good pet)  Also the poop is really small so it would be easy to clean up. 

Once she picks a pet, we will call Petco over skype to get a quote. If we have enough, we can get it next month or if we dont, we will have to have another fundraiser. Seriously, such a great cross-disciplinary project. Love project-based learning.