Ball Python for Classroom pet

My fourth grade class pet was a ball python for 12 years. I am now retired from teaching and "Wilbur" is no longer with us. Wilbur was a great pet in the classroom and was handled daily. The kids would actually line up when coming to class to hold him. (Since the classroom was a little cool over night, I think he liked warm hands.) When school started, he would glide into his flower pot and be gone for the day. Over the years, many students lost their fear of snakes. I can't say the same for the principal and a couple fellow teachers, who would ask at the door if Wilbur was in his pen before coming in.

Many good educational experiences began because of Wilbur. One was learning to use a balance scales to weigh him. We also weighed the mouse that would be his meal. Since we needed a container to weigh the mouse, we used Wilbur as the container. We weighed him before and after he ate and subtracted. It was fun to motivate kids to learn with Wilbur handy.

Balls are great classroom pets and push kids to learn in multiple ways.
Regards,
Pletch

Hi Pletch,

I'm actually going into Education myself, and I was just wondering if you had any trouble with the administration allowing you to have Wilbur as your class pet. I think it would be really awesome to have a class pet, but going through school, none of my teachers ever had one. My lack of experience makes me wonder how it works. Of course, my experience would be different than yours because I'll be teaching teenagers.

Through highschool, one of my biology teachers kept a cornsnake as a class pet! It was very cute, and the cornsnake was docile as ever. Lots of learning experiences for those not familiar with snakes, or with a fear of snakes.

I'd think that a diurnal snake might make a better class pet than a nocturnal one, but ball pythons are so cute and sweet that I think they're a good snake to introduce snake-phobes to :snake:

My son's 3rd grade class has 2 corn snakes as pets. His teacher was pretty impressed when he found out we had 8 snakes. :snake::snake:

My son is in 2nd grade and he wanted me to bring Freddy to his school one day and show him to his class. Well, the teacher said yes but the school principal said no.