Pet Show Day

We were able to have our pet show today. It was really sunny, but also cold. It was so windy that one of our signs even blew away. I also had to talk loudly so that everyone could hear me. But, we made it and even though it was chilly, the children had a great time.

For pet show day children are invited to bring their pets from home and show them off. If children don't have live pets at home, they are invited to bring in a pretend pet. We have our show at the beginning of class time. We make a big circle outside and everyone gets to go talk about what pet they brought, then after they have all been introduced everyone gets to walk around and visit the pets. I always have a first place certificate for everyone with a special characteristic of their pet written on it.

Each year we have gotten less and less live pets. This year we had, bunnies, two dogs, two hermit crabs, one cat, and lot of stuffed buddies. I will say it's a bit less chaotic without all the real pets, but it's not as fun. We can have lots of barking dogs, hissing cats, etc., but they are always fun. Over the years we have had lots of pets; dogs, cats, ferrets, fish, guinea pigs, snakes, lizards, hermit crabs,...I always love seeing the pets.

After our show, the live pets went home and we went back to the room to finish our day. Today we made bird puppets. They were very easy as our time was short, and I decided to add a great mess to our room, but you can read that in another post.

Each child got a bird print out which they decorated with marker or crayon. Then if they were comfortable, they cut it out, if not I helped them--it's a bit curvy. We folded and glued, added a stick and off they flew.

We read the book "My Pet Turtle," by Deborah Reber, illustrated by David A. Cutting, with Blue from Blue's Clues. It was appropriate because Blue got to take his pet turtle Turquoise to school with her. She also explained what was needed to care for a turtle. The children love it because it has Blue in it too.