Animals in the Classroom

I discovered having animals in the classroom meant a lot to most children. Some were happy to come to school each day just to watch the turtles, lizards, guinea pigs, fish, and salamanders. I guess I should say we all really loved the animals.

Our painted turtle was a particular favorite. One day it developed an eye infection. It’s important for kids to see the animals are well taken care of, so I took our little turtle to the veterinarian and got nowhere. Actually I took it to a second veterinarian as well, but without success. I eventually got help at a pet store, which sold me an antibiotic pill and instructed me to disolve it in water and soak the turtle a few hours each day — and it worked! Naturally we were now all especially attached to this turtle.

One spring a few years later the turtle died. We were saddened, of course, and decided to give it a proper burial. We chose a nice spot on the east side of the school building and went outside with a shovel and our dear, departed little turtle.

Children from many of the grades were there, at least the kids who still remembered and were fond of the turtle. One child (a first-grader) dug a hole. One lay the turtle in the hole. One covered it with dirt. As luck would have it, the school band teacher had overheard us making preparations earlier and offered to play Taps at the funeral. The kids who chose to made a little speech of their sadness, their love, their wishes. It was a sad occasion, but I'll tell you now that it was absolutely adorable.

Later, back in the classroom at writing time, many of the children wrote how they felt about the death of our cherished turtle.