Rabbits at show and tell

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Luvmyzoocrew

Luvmyzoocrew

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, Pennsylvania, USA
just went to a parent teacher conference at for my three year old and i asked about show and tell. i asked about possibly bringing in one of the buns. But i am up in the air about it all. i think it is a great experience for the kids, for the kids with no pets to be able to interact with an animal, for all the kids to learn proper care for the rabbit and to be able tohave a positiveexperience with an animal. so what does everyone think about it. out of the two rabbits i have i would take Sooty because he is more laid backa nd easy going, but harder to handle because he hates being picked up. Belle is easier to handle but i think gets a little more stressed easiler. so there are pros and cons with the both of them. so far i am th inking aobut sooty because we would just sit on the ground and i would usea treat to get himback in the cage so no picking up of any kind .



Also if i takeone of them, it would be no one picking them up , two finger touching when pettingthem,one child at a time petting them,. so what else do i need to know or think of before doing this. it is not set instone so i can not do it any time, i am not obligated. help me think of all the good and bad pointsabout it. thank you
 
When I was a kid and growing up, we had a cat and a cockateil that were best friends.

One of MY fondest childhood memories was from when my Dad took time off work to bring them into the classroom for show & tell. Not only did it give me a wonderful sense of love (especially looking back on it) for my Dad, I have a wonderful memory of both pets who are now long gone.



The kids don't have to pet your rabbit if you take him, or maybe just a select few. Even better, if your bun can stay in the classroom for a while, perhaps take no food, but some hay. You can put it in a bowl and let kids (who arent allergic, maybe some veggie leafs for them) give him some in the cage, so they can watch him eat for a while. Or maybe just bring some veggies to be on the safe side...
 
i too thought about allergies to the bunnie, so i was thinking that maybe a no hands on but just talking about rabbits, or haveing the school send out a note to all parents letting them know that one of the moms are bringing in a bunny and getting permission, or letting them know if there is anyone who is allergic.
 
My friend came over and had no idea she was allergic to my rabbits. Not here 20 minutes when she had to leave because she was breaking out. She never touched them. This wasback whenI had just 2.
 
I think I'd ask the teacher if she can find out from all the parents if there are any concerns.

We had a teacher in my daughter's school who had a mini-rex. I even went in to see him LOL! He was precious! still is. However, because someone has allergies - they couldn't keep him at the school anymore. She wasn't in this teacher's class but the bunny had a fondness for going room to room on that floor for attention!

He'd hop into the class and find someone to love on him LOL! He got scooted out the door a few times from what I hear - and then he'd go to the next classroom.

One day the whole school was up in arms because he was missing! :shock:

They found him UPSTAIRS trying to get cozy with an older kid. :p

Just remember - kids carry illness.
 
I am not sure if I would suggest bringing in a bunny. There are many plus sides, though, but there are TONS of negative sides.


What happens when the kid goes home and asks his or her parents for a bunny? Then the parents say yes and they go to the pet store and get one and take horrible care of all....all because Sooty came in for a visit and the kid wanted a rabbit of their own.

I suppose you can try to prevent that, though, by sending a rabbit care packet home with each child...and an explanation of how expensive and time consuming rabbits can be, not to mention that they are not a "starter" pet for children.


:)
 
I have done several "Show and Tells", until they banned all animals in the schools... (they're not worried about allergies... it's "LIABILITIES"!!!!!!!! What would they do if someone get scratched?) :rant: Sorry...

Anyway, they were all very positive and nice. I explained about how much work ANY animal is and how much time and effort you have to put into caring for them. Kids as young as 5 understood perfectly. If it's explained them in way they can understand, they get it!

Now we do Girl Scout Troops and 4-H clubs and some preschools. You don't realize how sanitized wehave madesome kids... they have NEVER touched a rabbit (or any other animal)! How sad. :huh


 
I know! I am so shocked at how many people are like "ew! a rabbit in your house?!" and they don't even want them to touch an animal. I understand having purell in the barns at our fair and stuff, but that's for the animals mostly.

I can't imagine my kids growing up not having chased a dog through the yard in play, laid around with a sheep for a pillow, or hugged a horse! My children don't freak out over a litterpan of bunny poo! or if they see a "wild" poo somewhere they just pick it up, throw it out and wash their hands.


 
undergunfire wrote:
I suppose you can try to prevent that, though, by sending a rabbit care packet home with each child...and an explanation of how expensive and time consuming rabbits can be, not to mention that they are not a "starter" pet for children.


:)
Click to expand...
great point i did think of doing something like that too, but i dont have a printer, so that when the kids went home and said they wanted a rabbit mom and dad didnt run out and get one.
 
I also think that there are good and bad points to this. I think what undergunfire said about rabbit care packets are a great idea, I am all about educating people about animals of all kinds. One thing you have to remember is, with pre-schoolers, there will be a lot of noise. Even with making sure there is no poking and prodding, you will likely have some that will shriek out of pure excitment.

Personally, I wouldn't worry to much about allergies. Like iceqeen said, have the teachers send home a note to the parents, and then if any of them have a concern it can be addressed before you bring in the rabbit.
 
How old are the kids? You said your child is 3. They seem a little young... On my 11th birthday, my mom brought soda, a cookie cake and my rabbit to my class at school. We moved all the desks out of the way and sat in a big circle and he was in the middle, merrily hopping around and getting fed treats by the kids. He wasn't nervous at all, but these were fifth graders who knew better how to behave around pets. We had a mentally handicapped boy in my class who loved Cinnabun and Cinny sat very nicely on his lap and got pets.

Good luck with your decision!
 
The children are 3-4years old, i think the perfect age to get them started on how to be nice and start telling them about animals.

i want to thank everyone for all the input, pro or con, it was all aprreciated and loved. i like devils advocate and knowing all sides to something before doing it. I am still on the fence on what to do, show and tell doesnt start until jan, but maybe i will wait till next year, as i plan on sending him tot he same preschool. This way i will have all this time to get prepaired ,to get material ready, and my thoughts ready and to make sure that the rabbit would be ok with it. We shall see. keep the ideas coming though.
 
I think that it would be a great experience for the kids!! I know my fondest show & tell memoires are form when people brought in their animals!!

I have an idea about what to do to decide what to do about which bun to bring in, you could make a list of all the bunnies bad traits (for example: nips often) and all the bunnies good traits (for example: likes to be petted), and the bunny with the most good traits you should bring in.

Like everyone all ready said alleriges could be a problem. I think that you should check with the teachers, before bringing the bunny in.


 
Sorry I didn't have time to scroll through the whole post as I am just "popping in" but I thought I'd toss in my 2 cents!

My husband and I do volunteer work for OREO here in Ontario and we go to our nieces school and do show and tell for the kids. Before we go though we have a meeting with the teacher regarding rules.

We show up a half hour early the day of the show and tell so the bunns can be settled before the kids get into the classroom. We have a blanket set up on the floor to minimize messes, and a small NIC enclosure in the middle of this containing the bunns. There is a definate no touch rule, but at the end we let everyone get into a line and they can stop and pet the rabbit I or my huband are holding(we usually take our 2 best socialized bunns who don't mind kids) For the younger grades we have the kids come into the classroom and sit in a circle around the blanket and have a "hush" rule.

We usually suggest to the teacher that the day before might be a good time for the kids to each think of 2 or 3 things that they really want to know about rabbits (there are usually between 20-30 children to a class so this tends to cover most questions they come up with and at the end of the question and answer we cover anything they miss). With the teacher working with the kids they really come up with some very interesting questions and it gets them thinking too!

We put the childrens names on popsicle sticks and randomly select them so everyone is included and all the kids get a chance to ask questions. OREO has printed colouring books that we can hand out too as a workbook for them. It contains rabbit facts and care and a word search.

All in all I have to say it has been a very positive experience for us. And if we can educate kids while they are still young...that is a whole generation that we can influence positively!:)

BTW-the way allergies are handled here is that we tentatively set up a date with the teacher for the show and tell, and then the week before, the school sends home a letter to the parents telling them what is scheduled and if there is a problem they fill in the school and it is a no go for us. So far though we haven't encountered any problems!

If you want any other ideas or to toss it around somemore you can PM if you want! Good Luck!:D

-Dani-
Fur Mom to Skittles, Peppers, Solembum, Dandelion, Leopold, Daffodil and Sophie-Luv!
 
I think it's a GREAT oppotunity to educate and nurture children's love for animals. Like some said in a previous post, my most fond memories of elementary school show and tell was when someone brought in a pet.

I would def ask about the allergy, thing though. A letter to parents is a great idea.
 
I took osme kits about 5 weeks for my daughter's show and tell last year. We did it outside as there was 1 child with an allergy. The kids were 4/5 years old. They all got very excited and squealed and screamed and it was very stressful, over crowding, not listening ect. I would not do it again. The poor kits were terrified
 
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