Our Class Pet Fluffy!!

My friend introduced me to Webkinz in 2007...she kept talking on and on about how fun it was to play games online and that her students really enjoyed going on the website.  It took me awhile to check it out...but when I did...I became a Webkinz fanatic!!  You should have seen my collection and all of the webkinz plush animals we used in our library center.  She wasn't kidding, they loved reading to the webkinz and also going to the website to play games.

When I found out about Webkinz Jr., I wanted to see if it would be something I could use in kinder.   The first year, I introduced Max Jr. the Monkey...they couldn't stop talking about him.

Every year I would adopt another Webkinz Jr. for the class so that they could play with our webkinz online. 

In the past I've had a class pet hamster, but after my last one died from old age...I just couldn't take losing another little friend.  I'm such an animal lover and get so attached.  

So, this year instead of having a real classroom pet, I decided to use a Webkinz Jr. Puppy and introduced him as our class pet in the beginning of the school year. They had so many different names for him, but the name Fluffy had the most votes.  So, we named him Fluffy!

I told my students that every week I would select a student to be our O.W.L. of the Week (Student of the Week) and the S.O.F.W. would get to take Fluffy home over the weekend.    

They were really looking forward to seeing how he looked like on the computer and we played a few games with Fluffy online!  Inside Fluffy's bag he has a folder with his favorite bed time stories, journal, pencil box, and a parent letter.

Here is a picture of the inside of the journal.  Inside, it contains Fluffy's rules for using his journal and the students write their name in his visiting log.  

Every week we make a circle map about the Student of the Week, and the students help with thinking of nice words they can say about their classmate.  

After we make the circle map they write about their friend on a sheet of paper to make him/her a class book.

I found this wonderful 'Star of the Week Class Book' at TGIF (Thank God It's First Grade!) blog.  It's adorable and it has worked so well for our class.  You can get a free copy by checking out her website!  I hope you enjoyed viewing how we use Fluffy in our class!:)