How the Class Tortoise Can Help Your Child be a Better Human Being.
Having pets in the classroom is a fantastic way to spark curiosity and compassion in young learners. When children are responsible for animals, they form connections that can’t be achieved any other way. Observing animals, caring for them, learning about their characteristics and habitats… these lessons build a foundation for a lifelong love of learning.
How do Class Pets Help Children?
Class pets invite natural opportunities to learn across different domains…
Social and emotional skills: The positive impact class pets have on children’s emotional health is well-researched and documented. Caring for animals gives children a daily opportunity to nurture. They practice empathy, patience, and kindness. Engaging with pets can reduce anxiety, and even encourage school attendance!
Language skills: What is a carapace? How about a caudal fin? Your child’s vocabulary grows in new and unexpected ways when they learn about the animals in the classroom. Interactions with class pets are a great way to inspire spontaneous writing. And creating a report about a pet is a great way to build reading skills.
Science skills: Life cycles, habitats, feeding and grooming habits, anatomy… your child has an entire biology curriculum living in their classroom! Setting up and maintaining a habitat is a rich science lesson that continually invites children to ask questions about the world.
Math skills: Caring for pets invites opportunities for quantification and comparison. Let’s make a graph of the different garden greens the class tortoise ate this month. Did she eat more kale or more spinach?
Practical life skills: The practice of feeding pets and maintaining their habitats helps children become responsible stewards of their own environment. When caring for pets, children build responsibility skills that directly impact their feelings of self-worth. They become caretakers of a small environment, which lets them know they are capable of contributing in a meaningful way.
Living Beings, Indoors and Out!
At Lakewood Montessori in Boise, animals are an important part of our community.We have a mix of wild and domestic animals at our preschool. Our spaces are a home for…
Indoor pets: Animals that thrive in indoor habitats. These are different classes of animals, including reptiles (tortoises, geckos), mammals (rabbits), fish, insects, and molluscs. These animals need well-maintained habitats with food and engagement. Children feed these animals and maintain their habitats. We often have class materials (like anatomy puzzles and classified vocabulary cards) that teach children about these special creatures.
Outdoor pets: Animals that thrive in safe, contained outdoor spaces. These include our flock of quail, and our outdoor rabbits. We also support a community of different species of mason bees with human-made habitats. These animals can be closely observed, and children help maintain their habitats.
Wild animals in our habitat: Animals that thrive in our school’s outdoor spaces without containers. These include birds that nest in our gardens or outdoor classrooms, toads that hibernate with us, and insects that pollinate our flowers or help our plant matter decompose. These animals can be observed at a respectful distance. We can learn more about these animals using books from our library, or in lessons with our Garden Teacher.
These experiences with animals set the stage for your child to step into the role of environmental stewardship. Our students leave school knowing that they have the capacity to protect the world around them!
Living our Days with Pets
There are so many opportunities for children to connect with animals in a significant way! We harvest greens from our gardens to feed the tortoises. We collect the eggs from our flock of school quail. We observe the wild pollinators on our playground. Every interaction provides valuable feedback to children about the world around them. We internalize that we are interconnected parts of the world, and that human beings have a responsibility to the creatures around them.
Grounding lessons in real interactions with living creatures takes preparation and care. That means adults have the responsibility to model and teach:
Respect: Pets are not toys! Before we interact with an animal, we learn about their habitat and needs. We encounter the animal in a context that lets children know that the animal’s home and body belong to themselves.
Gentleness: Handling pets is a big responsibility! Before handling an animal, we practice using quiet voices and careful movements that make the animal feel comfortable with our presence. Once we’ve practiced being gentle, we can start to participate in caring for the animal’s habitat and providing food. Being able to touch or hold an animal comes after a great deal of practice.
Concern: Adults can actively model care for pets by stating aloud the conditions they’re checking. “How is the humidity in the tank today?” “Looks like his food bowl is nearly empty.” “She’s shedding right now, so she’s really sensitive.” “Do you think he feels safe when we play loudly near him?”
Curiosity: Pets naturally invite questions, from children and adults! Teachers and families can encourage curiosity by demonstrating it themselves. “What did the tortoise have to eat today?” “What do you think the rabbits like to do after we go home?”
Wonder: Being with living creatures is a constant source of wonder. Children can be transfixed by the simplest habits of pets.
Feeding time is a great opportunity to teach through wonder. For example, here’s the story of Victor and his strawberries:
Victor is a Russian Tortoise who lives in Room 5. He likes to crawl around his habitat during the day, and burrow into his substrate at night. We grow strawberries in our outdoor classroom every year. They’re not very big, like the strawberries from the grocery store, but they’re the perfect size for Victor. Victor can’t have strawberries all the time… they are a special treat. When a strawberry from our outdoor classroom has grown and ripened, we can harvest it to feed to Victor. We know how to harvest food for Victor, because we harvest greens for him from our garden all year. When it’s time to harvest a strawberry, we get excited because we know Victor will really enjoy it! We check every day to see if a strawberry is ripe enough to harvest. When one is finally ready, we know what to do! We put on our gardening aprons and get a pair of clippers to harvest the ripe strawberry. We bring the strawberry into our classroom, and make sure it’s nice and clean for Victor. Then we give the strawberry to Victor. We get to watch him take big bites. He really loves it!
Preparing for Classroom Pets
It’s important to remember that new classroom pets require MORE preparation than a new student. After all, the classroom is usually their full-time home. Teachers who are considering adopting a pet need to do their homework before introducing a new member to their class community.
- Carefully research the animal’s physical needs: What is a healthy diet for the animal? Can this diet always be provided, and who is responsible for making sure they are eating properly? What are the size and dimensions of a proper habitat? Does the animal need a particular temperature range to be healthy? What about humidity? UVA/UVB lighting? Do you have a specialty vet you’re able to take them to if they’re sick? How will they get enough stimulation? How will they get enough rest?
- Research and prepare for the animal’s emotional and safety needs: Can you child-proof your classroom pet’s habitat so that children can’t access the pet unsupervised? Does the animal have “hides” or safe spaces where they can go when they need to retreat? Will the noise and light in the classroom be disturbing to the animal? Rodents like mice and hamsters are nocturnal… imagine trying to sleep through a busy school day!
- Plan for emergencies: What happens if your class is closed for a snow day? How about a fire or flood? Can you prepare your class pet’s environment so that they have food, water, and other necessities to make it through the next several days if school isn’t safe to access? You can also include your class pet in your emergency evacuation and shelter-in-place drills.
- Plan how your students will engage safely and respectfully with the pet: What lessons will you give to introduce the animal? What kinds of handling are safe and sanitary (reptiles, amphibians, and birds can spread bacteria, and dander from mammals can cause allergies)?
- Adopt pets ethically: Many small mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians are sold by breeders who see them as a commodity. These animals are raised in stressful, dangerous conditions and are likely to have diseases and other long-term medical conditions that require specialized care. Purchasing pets from breeders like this perpetuates inhumane conditions for animals. Instead of purchasing from a breeder or a pet shop, try adopting from your local community. At Lakewood Montessori, we’ve coordinated with our local vet’s herpetologist to adopt reptiles that need new homes. Contact your local vet or humane society to give a home to a new classroom pet!
- Have a backup plan: Before we introduce a new pet to a classroom, we make sure there is a teacher who can responsibly rehome the animal if the classroom is not a good living space.
What if Pets Aren’t an Option?
Whether it’s a lack of time, budget, or willingness, some classrooms aren’t able to become the home for a classroom pet. Even with grant and fundraising options available, it’s simply not feasible for some teachers! Consider these alternatives to connect children to animals in the classroom:
Become a temporary home. Pets can visit the classroom for weeks of dedicated study. One year at Lakewood Montessori, the class tarantula from a local public school spent a month in one of our classrooms. The children were introduced to the spider and learned about its habitat, feeding habits, life cycle, and body systems. This was a short term but joyful exploration that helped students better understand the spiders they encountered on the playground and at home! You can also incubate chickens for a local community member… it’s a fun yearly project! Some humane societies even encourage short-term foster programs for small animals, to give them space from the noise and activity of the shelter while they wait for adoption.
Observe animals in your school’s outdoor spaces. Bird watching is a fun science extension, especially if you have a bird feeder outside your classroom. If your school has a garden, you can study the pollinators that visit. You can even create a bug hotel to visit throughout the spring and fall!
Study pets at home. If the children in your classroom have pets, you can encourage them to bring in pictures and share about the animals in their lives.
Welcome an animal visitor for an in-class field trip. In Boise, we’re lucky to be located near the World Center for Birds of Prey. Every year a representative from Idaho Fish and Game visits with a raptor for a lesson with our Kindergarteners. Your local aquarium, humane society, wildlife rehabilitation center, or zoo may offer in-class field trips!
See it for Yourself!
We’re proud of the pet homes we’ve curated at Lakewood Montessori, and we’d love to share them with you! Book a tour to see what’s going on!
