A Guinea Pig Makes An Excellent Classroom Pet

Curtis Brasfield             Horace Mann
                             8050 S. Chappel
                             Chicago IL 6O617
                             312-535-6640

Objectives:

     By carefully studying the behavior of a live guinea pig in a third-grade 
classroom for four days, the students will gain direct knowledge of the guinea 
pig's behavior and determine if it will make a good classroom pet.


Materials Needed:

     guinea pig (live)                   bread           insect
     cage                                corn            onion
     observation guide questions         pellets         pepper
     newspaper                           apple           salt
     carrot                              banana          cloth
     lettuce                             meat            potato

Procedures and Strategies:


     A brief outline of the subject to be studied will be presented by the 
classroom teacher. 
     The students will then be asked to observe and study the behavior of a live 
guinea pig in their classroom for four school days and write answers to the 
following questions based on their observations: 

          1.  What does the animal look like?
          2.  How does it behave?
          3.  Does it like young children or does it become easily upset?
          4.  What foods does it like?  Dislike?
          5.  Can it be trained?  How?
          6.  What kind of noises does it make?
          7.  Is it safe to keep around children?
          8.  How often does it sleep during the day?  How often does it play?
          9.  What are some basic rules we need to follow in taking care of 
                   the guinea pig in the classroom?

     After the four-day observation period, a classroom discussion of the 
students' findings will take place on the fifth day. 

Multicultural Emphasis:

     Students will be asked to research the origin of the guinea pig and report 
their findings to the class for extra credit.

Performance Assessment:

     Based on students' observations, study, classroom discussion and research, 
the students will write, in their own words, at least five reasons why a guinea 
pig will make a good classroom pet for third graders, and also identify the 
origin of the guinea pig (the country, the location of the country, and the 
language of the people who live there).