Opportunity to educate?

[Emmy-Dan]

My daughters teacher has asked me to take our four girls into school to show the other children. They have been studying Animals and now are talking about pets. I have agreed to this and got all things ready so the girls will be comfy. (NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO TOUCH THEM).

I thought this could be a good opportunity to teach children about the correct way of looking after G. Pigs and to encourage they go to rescue centres as opposed to pet Shops.

The children are eight years old. Has anyone any ideas as to what I can say and how to advise them?

[Jane_G]

I took our guinea pig into my daughters 2nd grade class to basically explain the same thing, although we bought her before I had found this site.

The children are very curious and are always interested in new animals. You have the right idea about no touching. I made the mistake of taking Cookie out of her cage and one of the kids kept trying to get some of her fur for a souvenir! The other kids were listening to everything I said except this child. The teacher wound up taking Cookie from me and held her up enough so he couldn't reach her! Maybe if you know the kids will behave you could take one out. The kids especially liked hearing the wheeking and squeaking noises.

One thing I wish I had done was to make some coloring pages. There really isn't much to talk about to 8 year olds that they will find interesting for any period of time.

Have fun!