Well, it's been a long time since I blogged anything having to do with my students. But I have a good reason why: I rescued a terrier puppy named Sydney in October and now all of my free time basically is all about the dog. :) Which I don't mind.

Having a class of 13 really helps have a built in socialisation pool to draw from. It's interesting to see how the puppy responds to the kids and the kids to Sydney. Sometimes I bring her up to school and sometimes the kids come over to my house (which is just across the street from school)

Grace and Jack came one day and they played with her for a little over an hour! Grace was great with the dog. Tracy bought the dog some toys for Christmas and so I brought her up yesterday to let the kids play with her again. I'm also watching the 4th grade bus students in addition to my own bus kids this week, so the 4th graders had a ball with her! They were like "Miss L, she sort of looks like Andromeda!" (their teachers dog) and couldn't believe it when I said 'Yes, they are sisters! They're from the same litter!

It's been really fun to teach her different commands and I'm a sucker, she sleeps with me at night. I have a Nintendo DS and I was waiting for Josie and Amelia to make enough money on Nintendogs for me to have my own lab -- yeah, not anymore! Sydney is way better than any video game!

Anyway, I think Sydney has been a great lesson for the students on how to treat animals kindly and with respect. And its been great for Sydney to learn how to act around children and other people. She's got the whole 'sit' thing down when people come in the house or if we're out walking but she's still working on it when in the classroom!! She just gets a little too excited and so do the kids! Many of them have never had exposure to dogs or the prior knowledge of what a mammal is, so this sets them up for when we get to that science unit as well.

Do you use animals in the classroom?