The
   Project
Approach

THE PET PROJECT

by Katie Keller

This project was undertaken in the Spring of 1996 by children aged 4-6 years in the Franklin County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Early Childhood Program in Columbus, Ohio. The class consisted of 12 children. Six children were identified with developmental delays in the areas of speech, fine motor, gross motor, and/or cognition, and 6 children were without developmental delays.

Preliminary Planning

I observed the children discussing pets. The children would initiate the topic almost daily. I decided there was a definite interest in pets.

Phase 1

I shared a picture of my kitten with the children. There was an immediate response to the picture. The children asked questions and shared their pet experiences.

I taped the discussion so we could refer to it later. I also began a list of our ideas and questions.

I sent home a letter to the parents explaining our spirited discussion and asked if they would send in a picture of their child with their pet. The next day the pictures rolled in. In small groups the children told stories about their pets. Again I recorded the stories and wrote them out on paper. We displayed the pictures and stories in our room.

Here's an example of one child's story:

"Morgan is my dog. In the early
morning she plays with me.
Mom takes Morgan outside.
We feed Morgan everyday.
I like Morgan."

For the children who did not have a pet (two of them) they told wonderful stories about the pet they would like to have.

From these discussions we compiled a list of possible classroom pets. Our list consisted of a pig, mouse, fish, Godzilla, and a cow.

Phase 2

The excitement continued to build. We decided we needed to know more about the animals on our list. We went through the animals one by one. From the children's knowledge, a parent who came to talk to us and books we found ourselves focussed on a fish.

Our Art teacher has fish in the Art room. We set up a time to visit Elizabeth and her fish. We came up with a list of questions to ask Elizabeth. Examples: How often do you feed the fish? Where did you get the fish? Can the fish live over the weekend at school? We posted our questions and Elizabeth's answers with the rest of our discussions. We came together as a group and decided a fish is the classroom pet we'd like to have.

I set up a field trip to the Pet Store (2 weeks past the day we decided on the fish).

As we waited for the day to arrive, we prepared our room. The children

• created a list of things the fish will need. Examples: food, rocks.
• posted the list.
• discussed where to put the fish in our classroom.
• told stories about what would do if we were fish.
• drew fish using paint, cray-pas, and pencils.
• read books.
• created a mural of fish.

Two days before our trip, we made fish t-shirts with fabric paint. We decided to wear the shirts the day of our trip.

The day arrived. We had a wonderful time at the pet store. We decided on two orange fish, pink rocks, and brown fish food.

Phase 3

We returned to school and set up our fish tank. We talked about names for our fish. We made a list and decided to think about it until the next day, then we would vote. We posted our name list by the fish. We also decided to make a list for who feeds the fish on what day.

The next day I arrived at school to find one of our fish dead. I separated the dead fish into a bowl of water. As the children came in, their first move was to the fish bowl. One child noticed one fish was gone. I told the class how when I got to school the fish was floating and I thought he was dead. I asked them if they wanted to see the fish. They said yes. After a while of thought and observation, they agreed the fish was dead. Now we had to decided what to do with the dead fish. The kids who had fish at home offered the suggestion of burying or flushing the fish. We talked about both, then voted. The vote was to bury the fish. So we got spoons and headed to our playground. We picked a spot under a bush and buried the fish.

Back in the room we voted on a name for the remaining fish. We went over our name list, then voted. Our fish is called Rosie.

As the day went on the children shared their ideas about how the one fish died. Everyone was glad they both didn't die. They enjoy watching and feeding Rosie.

This process took us about 5 weeks. I have enjoyed going through the journey with my class. I was amazed at how much they would remember from week to week. Also, how their excitement continued to build.

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Last revised: October 17, 1996