So you don’t have any allergic kids this year. What about next year? Then what are you going to do with the pet? Take it to an animal shelter? Really, this is a very bad idea. Rabbits can live anywhere from 7 to 9 years. They are really a serious commitment. I’m surprised that schools still allow “class pets”, as a matter of fact. :no:
We had a pile of class pets when we were young, some nice and some evil. From kindergarden on my mom seemed to be the go to parent to take the pets home for weekends and summer vacation.
There was a hamster in kindergarden, who died one weekend. My mom called the teacher if she should replace him and the teacher said absolutely not! The best was the guinea pig who we ended up keeping. My mom adored him and he went outside in the backyard with her and the teachers were very happy for him to not come back to school. The last and worst were the degu’s. Whoever thought that was a good class pet was out of their mind, at least in the case of these 2. Mine and my sister’s class each had one and they both bit and were not good to handle at all. The teacher tried to get my mom to keep those after the summer was over, that didn’t happen.
My vote is no class pet. As fun as some of them were, I think that it was the school that wanted classrooms to have a class pet (private school) and not so much the teachers.
In elementary school in the early 90’s the pets that I recall having were: snakes, a mallard duck (which was the teachers pet and she took home daily), chinchillas, hermit crabs. I know in the case of the mallard, we were instructed on how to care for it in the mornings and the children who arrived early scrambled to be first in line to care for the duck. The chinchillas were neat to watch because they would do their dust baths.
If the set-up of the classroom allows, how about a nearby birdfeeder? Maybe one of those that is built onto the windowsill/ledge or sticks to the glass? You’d be surprised how fast birds appear when there’s food or water available, and how interesting they are to watch.
Love the window bird feeder idea.
Or maybe a hermit crab or two.
[QUOTE=Bedazzle;7712724]
In elementary school in the early 90’s the pets that I recall having were: snakes, a mallard duck (which was the teachers pet and she took home daily), chinchillas, hermit crabs. I know in the case of the mallard, we were instructed on how to care for it in the mornings and the children who arrived early scrambled to be first in line to care for the duck. The chinchillas were neat to watch because they would do their dust baths.[/QUOTE]
This was so much like our elementary science classroom back in the early '80’s. The teacher had probably over a dozen different animals, including turtles living in a wading pool, chinchillas in large cage with run, fish, newts, gerbils, snakes etc. She would pick “science monitors” every term and you had to go in early to feed them all - I loved it! Doubt they do it anymore.
and I agree with all about the rabbit in the classroom. Most don’t like to be alone (so you would be better with a non-breeding pair) and most don’t like be man-handled like they would be by children. They will bite and claw. My own rabbit who follows me around and loves attention will not hesitate to grunt or nip at me if I displease her :lol:
