Valentine’s Day usually means a homework pass from the teacher in Mrs. Scannell’s classroom. But this year I found myself inspired to jazz it up. I’m not sure why exactly, goodness knows my students don’t need a reason to get all wound up (it’s their everyday, every hour, every minute state) but something just made me want to do this.
Anyway I decided to let them adopt a pet. Something to be responsible for. Something to have fun with. Something to pay attention to. We had just finished creating a class book and the theme was “Our Pet Stories”. They wrote adorable stories so I guess “Pet Adoption Day” just naturally followed.
First I bought a big bag of small stuffed animals. Then I created a Valentine’s Day card with an ‘Official Birth Certificate’ on the back. While the children were at a special on Valentine’s Day I laid a bunch of stuffed animals out on our rug. Just as we got back to the room I whispered to them to be very quiet because the babies were sleeping…
They came into the room on tiptoe and went right to their desks to read their cards. Their eyes opened wide when they saw what was on the rug! I instructed them to seat themselves quietly all around the rug and look around for the pet that was calling out to them. (The pet chooses the owner after all!) Then they chose and filled out their Birth Certificates. We concentrated on physical traits today since we don’t know our new pets personalities yet.
I plan on utilizing these new class members for a lot of lessons; picture predicting what our pets will do during a fire drill, training our pets to follow rules, observing our class from our pets’ perspective, writing math problems about our pets… But for now we are all getting to know each other and the kids are having a lot of fun!
Oh, and they are already arranging playdates at the end of the day…
writintime 
So thoughtful!
And what an inspiration — I don’t think there’s any age limit to “adopting” a stuffed animal! I could see this teaching so much about relationships, empathy, and compassion in my classroom — besides research skills, paraphrasing, word choice, focus — in my 6th grade classroom.
I’m excited for your kids, not so much for their new snugglies, but for having such an awesome teacher. 🙂
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How fun! Such a cute idea. I’m sure it was so fun seeing their expressions as they tiptoed into the classroom and read their cards. They might have been wound up, but so worth it I bet! Kuddos to you for giving this fun, learning experience to your students!
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I relate especially to this idea’s tendency to connect students more deeply to the classroom as a place not only for learning but for feeling at home. As these stuffed animals become the subjects of class activities, it reinforces the social element in the room. To be in third grade again, and to have you as my teacher…
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This is wonderful! You will get a plethora of activities will spring from this, not doubt, but most of all, this was a day that your kiddos will never forget. I wouldn’t.
What a wonderful activity!
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This pet adoption is an awesome idea that you can spring board a plethora of activities from. And you even had twins in case two kids wanted the same pet. 🙂
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