A Digital Pet Day; where we can view all of our pets in cyberspace! So no need to bring your pets to school, no worries about pets not getting along or getting into mischief!
I sent out an e-mail explaining to parents the idea behind Digital Pet Day. Most of the photos were sent digitally to me by e-mail or saved onto a pen drive.
I created an advert for our Digital Pet Day and placed this at the top of our class blog. At the start of the year I'd also spent a bit of time with my seven and eight year old children showing them how to navigate round our class blog.
Our first Digital Pet Day was set down for February. However, due to the Christchurch Earthquake on Tuesday 22nd February this was cancelled.
Upon their return to school we talked and blogged about what we'd been up to during this traumatic time. It appeared that all of our pets were accounted for and the children were still keen to have a Digital Pet Day.
I think this also gave us something else to focus on. It provided the children with the opportunity to tell stories about their pets, write descriptions, talk about their pets and share any funny stories. Most importantly it encouraged children to view other pet posts and make comments. They were then inspired to go home and share the blog with their family.
All the posts for Digital Pet Day where scheduled to post in the early hours of the morning on Friday 1st April. Two days before this I sent a letter/e-mail to parents explaining how they could access their child's post (using labels/tags) and how they could write comments.
I would definitely do this again with a new class and we're now thinking of what other days we could have!
Click here to view our Digital Pet Day 2011.
