Lola From the Rescue....

A few days ago, the Kindergarteners got to meet my new puppy. I adopted her from the Almost Home Foundation (we've been helping them with supplies and money all year long). The mother was rescued from a high kill shelter and gave birth to several puppies in a foster home. The Almost Home Foundation brings pets who are fostered to our local Pets Mart stores in hopes of finding homes for them. One special puppy stole my heart right away! She is a Labrador Retriever-Mix, so I don't know how big she'll really get.

I had a hard time coming up with just the right name for her. Then Jacob (in the AM Class) thought of the perfect name, Lola!

Isn't she adorable?

Lola came to visit the kids at school. She was on her very best behavior and even showed off her very first trick.... "SIT" ;-)

Lola gets along well with my other dog, Coal. He'll turn 12 years old on March 17th. Lola a good companion for Coal. He loves to play tug-of-war with her.

Take a look at the afternoon class meeting her for the first time.

Meet Some of our "Pets"...

We have been working to help the Almost Home Foundation which rescues and fosters pets who need a home. We thought it might help us gain some appreciation for fostering pets if we could try it out in some way. We have several pets to chose from, 3 cats and 3 dogs. Between our AM & PM classes 4 children get to "Foster" a pet for a few days each week. We have a little pet carrier to help the pet travel safely. We also have a journal to help record events that happen while away from school. Take a look at a few kids from our class and the pets they chose to take home for a few days:

Helping Pets in Need...

This year we decided to reach out to our community in a new and fun way. We thought it would be nice to help pets in need. We contacted the folks at the Almost Home Foundation and are joining with them to do what we can to help pets that have been rescued and are living in "Foster Homes". We think of it as taking time to help, or pausing to help pets.
Thus we say: PAWS to Help Pets! :-)
Each month we plan to collect items to donate to the Almost Home Foundation. Our first collection was "Pennies for Pets". We sent out notes and asked families to send in pennies. We think it was a huge success. Our school collected $394.07!!! Then Mrs. Rose, of the Almost Home Foundation came to visit with her special friend Freddy! We were so excited. First she talked with us about what a "rescue" does to help pets. She also used a puppet to show us the proper way to greet a dog we don't know. She said always ask the owner if you can pet the dog. Then let it sniff your hand and rub gently from under the chin. Then she brought out Freddy to meet us. He was very patient as each child got a chance to come up and pet him. We hope that we will inspire some of our blog visitors to see what you might be able to do to help pets in your area! Our local PetsMart hosts pet adoptions each week. Maybe yours does too!

Same and Different...

Aren't these two pets adorable? Our friends over at Manaia Kindergarten have been sharing their pets at school. (We are going to do something similar when school starts up again in a few weeks). Some of their students have cats and others have dogs. They are welcoming comments from others that will help kids (and big people too) know the similarities and differences between the two pets.

Click on over to their site and share a thought or two:

Manaia Kindergeraten Cats & Dogs.

Dog& Cat image borrowed from Manaia Kindergarten's blog.

A Hermit Crab Visits....

We have been learning about all sorts of interesting sea animals. We learned about hermit crabs. We know they live in shells and as they grow, they will move out of one shell and into another.
A few days ago, Jake (a former Kindergartner, now in 5th grade) shared his pet hermit crab with us. He showed us what it eats and the tank he brought it to school in. His crab's shell is painted to look like Lisa on the T.V. show "The Simpson's". We thought that was pretty funny. We  recently read the book A HOUSE FOR HERMIT CRAB by Eric Carle so having a real hermit crab visit us was a treat! Jake passed it around and many of the kids were brave enough to hold it. Others chose to just look. Either way, it was neat to see it up close! Thanks Jake for sharing!