some ideas

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some ideas
By Julianne

Check with your local humane society. Often they have rotating pets that you can check out and keep for a few days or weeks. A humane society volunteer may bring it out to you and talk to your class about care of pets.
An added bonus. Also, our state farm extension office has a rotating chick hatchery that it will loan schools. You can hatch a batch of chicks and not have to wonder about what to do with them after they're grown. You might call around.
One great "pet" experience is raising butterflies. Order them from a science supply place like Carolina Biological. They come as tiny caterpillars

and go through all the stages of life. If you give them the correct kind of plant material they'll even mate and lay eggs. One year we managed to get two full life cycles from one set of caterpillars. They're easy maintenance as they come with their own supply of food. jThe kids love to let them go, too.

BTW - my daughter and her friend kept a beta as a "locker fish" in high school. They kept him in a clean peanut butter jar so they could screw on the lid and take him home each weekend. He lived happily in their locker for three years. Betas are surface breathers - meaning they take their air from the surface of the water by mouth rather than from the water through their gills. That's why they can be kept in such small surroundings. They can be kept with other fish, just not with another male beta. In fact, I kept a beta with a bunch of guppies once and the beta got his tail nipped frequently while he never bothered the guppies at all. No fair!