Oh, lord, these critters are cute. I like to call them the death-of-focus crab and the attention-deficit fish. Hours spent staring at these new tank additions, countless reminders "Ok, move away from the tank and get back to work". Every time we get quietly settled into our routine...

"Look! The Sun Cat fish are in the castle with the Plecostomos!"
 "Look, the crab is on top of the tree!"
"Look, the snail has moved!"

And that's just me and Erin.

Yeah, we're all pretty in love with our new tank additions: one cranky fiddler crab, an algae-sucking, prehistoric looking plecostomos, a mystery snail, a bunch of guppies, and a few other little fishies.

Plecostomos is keeping a watchful eye on Bo.

King of the castle

Crab telling plecostomos, "Get offa my lawn!!"

If you haven't read the "Bad Kitty" books by Nick Bruel, you are missing out. Absolutely hilarious. We have been reading "Bad Kitty Gets a Bath" for read aloud.

 Just to give you a taste of how much Bad Kitty loathe baths...

Here are some items you might need for Kitty's bath:

 

Here is a persuasive letter the class wrote to Bad Kitty's owner:

Dear Owner,

My name is Bad Kitty and I don’t want to take a bath!

I don’t want to take a bath because Bad Kitty+water=EXPLOSION!

Also, I could drown in it. And because I am already clean. Also, I don’t like getting brushed.

I do not like getting wet!

I don’t want the soap or shampoo to get in my eyes.

Please, do not give me a bath!

Sincerely,

Bad Kitty 

Then, we wrote one back to BK:

Dear Bad Kitty,

I am your owner and I want to give you a bath. If you don't get a bath, you will get sick and you will not like that. Also, you will develop a hairball. Plus, you smell really bad!

Do you think that a bath is revolting? 

Please let me find you in the tub!

Sincerely,

Your owner

It's a darn good thing we learned how to write persuasive letters this week because we really had to put them to work. You see, Julie Siler came in on Tuesday to let us know that she was ready to contribute our spy mission money to the National Wildlife Association to help out the Canadian Lynx. With the $20 we earned, we would get a certificate and a letter of thanks. Wait, what? Last year we got a stuffed animal when we contributed to help the Mekong Dolphin. Why no stuffed Lynx? Well, Julie told us, the stuffed animals are only with a $30 contribution. But maybe, just maybe, we could convince the ever elusive Agent O to cough up some more cash...but we'd have to have a really good argument. 

 

Just look at these impassioned pleas for more money!

'

"Dear Agent O,  I am writing to ask for 10 dolrs. You should give us the money because it wel hep the animal more. Also, you should give us the money because we wel hav a toy lynx. Just think about the por lynx."

"Dear Agent O, I am writing to ask for 10 dollars. You should give us the money because the Lynx could die! Just think about if you wur an annamul this was dieing."

"Dear Agent O, I am writing to ask for $10 to help a Lynx. You should give us the money because with it we can help a lynx. Also, you should give us the money because we can get the stuffed animal. Just think about people trap it for fur."

Dear Agent O, I am writing to ask you if you can give us $10.00 dollars for the stuffed lynx. You should give us the money because we can cuddle with the stuffed lynx. Also, you should give us the money because we can help the animal more. Just think about the living animal."

We also read a great book and watched a video on the powers of persuasion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMayGIVmfgA

We can tell it's already working, this persuasion thing...by the end of the day on Friday, the students had already built quite a case for getting more money for a stuffed animal, but for getting more fish and crabs, as well. One student was even vying for an eel.
 I think we've created a monster.