OUR COMMUNITY
Since 1988 Pet World employees have been recognized as a big part of the local community. You'll see our smiling faces in classrooms and at events all over town. Here is one of our first district partnership plans from many years ago. Pet World's presence in our public schools started in 1989 and expanded from the nearby schools to all the public schools around Y2K. How exciting that even with all the changes to when certain grades study specific topics, many of these programs are still active today!
Our Partnership With Lawrence Public Schools
- Kindergarten - classroom pets. To ease the transition into public school, many teachers choose to keep classroom pets for their students. Pets provide a warm, interesting environment and give even the most timid of students someone with whom they can connect with no fear of rejection. Small mammals seem to be the most popular with kindergarten classrooms, with guinea pigs in the lead.
- First grade - Aquatic Unit. Pet World sets up aquariums in all participating first grade classrooms in Lawrence. Near completion of their aquatic unit, first graders come to Pet World for an in-depth, interactive tour of the fishroom and a lesson on oceans, lakes, rivers and fish farming. Students get to pet live sea stars, stingrays, etc. Students also get a brief introduction to the reptiles they will be studying next year.
- Second grade - Reptile Unit. Pet World sets up live reptile displays in all participating second grade classrooms in Lawrence. Second graders may either visit Pet World for informative, interactive demonstrations with reptiles or Pet World will bring reptiles to the classroom for live demonstrations.
- Third grade - Rain Forest Unit. Pet World sets up rain forest terrariums in participating classrooms, complete with plants and either amphibians, spiders, or small reptiles. Near completion of the rain forest unit, Pet World visits the school with a variety of rain forest animals for the children to interact with and study up close. Pet World reinforces the classroom teaching by providing live visual aids of rain forest creatures, from the forest floor through the understory to the canopy and even the emergent layer. We bring animals from a variety of rain forest regions representing temperate to tropical rain forests. The Rain Forest program is by far the most popular and the oldest of all our school programs. Teachers generally book us months in advance to secure their visits.
- Fourth grade - Field trip sponsorship. Pet World frequently pays for all or part of the admissions fees for zoo field trips.
- All grades - Student Intervention. Some counselors and special education teachers have us come out and set up aquariums. Fish tanks are clinically proven to calm high strung kids and many therapists and doctors keep aquariums in their offices for that reason. We have heard many stories about kids who had trouble keeping it together at school until they were encouraged to study the fish tank for a short period each day to help them calm down and focus.
- All grades - Art. Students of all ages paint ceiling tiles to display at PW for variety of situations. Some paint tiles based on the units they are studying. Some simply do it for the experience and opportunity to have their work displayed in public.
- Junior and Senior High Science classes - Classroom pets. Especially popular in biology classes. We also give presentations for Animal Science.
Anyone can book us to handle programs like these for a reasonable fee. All Lawrence Public School programs, however, are free! We hope customers understand that it matters where you shop and know that most of the money you spend at Pet World stays in Lawrence and goes right back into the Lawrence community. No chain stores can make that claim or offer what we can offer.
