I’ve mentioned a couple of time that I got a new job a few weeks ago, but what I haven’t mentioned is that with my new job I also happened to inherit a class pet!
Meet Sparky.
He’s hands down the most adorable hamster I’ve ever seen in my life. Dude has been dropped on the ground, thrown into desk drawers, and rubbed all over my student’s faces but he just handles it like a pro. He’s awesome with my kids, and I am so lucky to have such a cool class pet – if I pick him up while he’s asleep, he’ll even go right back to sleep in my hands!
I brought him to our house over the long Easter weekend so he didn’t have to be alone at school, and it was quickly evident that the dogs were very interested in him.
Sparky, however, wasn’t so interested in them.
Over the several days that he was at the house, though, he came out of his shell a little and started investigating the dogs more.
Of course, the dogs weren’t the only ones who were fascinated with him – my nieces were in LOVE. They came over one night to stay with us, and we spent quite a bit of time hanging out with Sparky – he loved the attention!
He’s back at school now, but he’ll be at our house over the summer and the girls are already itching to see him again. The dogs are too.
You may have noticed the little “s” on the end of the title up there. You see, this past week Sparky wasn’t the only pet in my class. We also had Shelly.
Let’s just say it all together – AWWWWW.
This little guy was in my room because one of my students built an incubator a few weeks ago and has been excitedly tracking the progress of his eggs for the past almost-month. Only…they didn’t hatch (oops?). So, another teacher in my school was kind enough to help me out and get a chick for me to swap out with one of the eggs – we just couldn’t let him down! Thankfully, he never knew the difference and gleefully enjoyed this past week with the chick – as did all of my other students.
Sadly, Friday was our last day with the chick and now she’s off to live with a family who raises chickens. My class will miss her, and as much as I complained about the noise (and the smell!), I have to admit I’m a little sad she’s gone too.
I have a feeling this might have to become a yearly tradition!
Did you have any class pets growing up? I remember we had snakes in my second grade class, and I think we had a hedgehog when I was in first grade!
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Comments on this post
They are the most adorable things ever!! Now I want a class pet :/
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17. April - 6:04 amOh, that first picture brings back memories! After hermit crabs, my brother and I had hamsters as pets. When we moved from Philly to Dallas my dad drove the hamsters down (which I now realize probably wasn’t the most fun for him). I never had a class pet, but I remember one year we had a class stuffed rabbit that each kid had the chance to take home over night.
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17. April - 6:43 amOh my gosh!!! SUCH cuties!! And that photo of Ranger is just too funny. I love it. I never had class pets, but to my parents’ horror, I did bring home tadpoles one day hoping they would turn into frogs. They didn’t make it, haha. Your kids are lucky to have such cute class pets!!
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17. April - 6:46 amOh my goodness, sparky and Shelly are so cute!! I wouldn’t want to let Shelly go, but at least sparky will be with you for the long haul.
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17. April - 7:44 amAw, they are so cute!! I can’t remember if many of my teachers had class pets except for my 7th grade science teacher. She didn’t just have A class pet she had a row of tables along one wall with like 12 pets. I can’t remember what they all were, but I do know that my two favorites were the chinchilla and the hedgehog. Best part was, you could sign up to take any of the pets home for a weekend or break, and I got to take them both home at some point. Even now… I kinda want a hedgehog (but I’m a little afraid our cats would eat him, so I guess I’ll have to pass on it).
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Amanda Reply:
April 18th, 2012 at 3:19 pm
Wow! That is so cool!
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Awww! So cute! I had hamsters in my high school science club (well, it was called science club, but really it was “raising pets that your parents won’t let you bring home” club), they are so fun!
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17. April - 10:41 amWhat grade do you teach? I I teach kindergarten, but sadly no pets are allowed in my school. I think my kiddos would love either of those cute little guys.
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Amanda Reply:
April 17th, 2012 at 4:54 pm
I teach special education at the elementary level – I have pre-k through 5th!
I think I’m the only teacher in the school with a pet, haha
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Love the photos. And it figures YOU would have a yellow pet.
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Amanda Reply:
April 18th, 2012 at 3:11 pm
Hah!! That’s funny – I didn’t think about that.
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I used to have a teddy bear hamster like that! Her name was Phoebe – sad they don’t live longer, she was a great little friend! And omg, that chick! So sweet!
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19. April - 12:16 amGwaah such a cute hammu and chick! How fun!
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19. April - 11:58 amAwwww! So so cute. I loved having class pets when I was in elementary school. I had a teacher at one of my schools that would have duck eggs every year…and you’d track the progress, watch them hatch, and she kept them around for a few weeks after they hatched…then gave them to a farm that she got the eggs from. It was so cool! One of my college roommates got a duck egg as well…when it hatched it was our house pet for a while. It was kind of annoying, but ducks have that “following’ mechanism in their little brains…so the little guy would follow me around the house like I was his mommy. He was a fuzzy yellow dude – so cute! It was kind of humorous to have a duckling following me at my heels all the time…and we got him a kiddie pool to swim in out in the back of our house – ha!
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Amanda Reply:
April 21st, 2012 at 12:24 am
That’s pretty amazing! I’m jealous!
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