Children now lack communication with nature. Less and less they are in the forest, in the meadow. It is difficult to hear the birds singing behind the city noise, it is impossible to watch animals from the wild among the asphalt. To interest children, in schools you can equip a small room so that animals from a living corner live in it.
Appointment
It is no secret that every child is looking for a reliable companion. You should not limit it only to communication with classmates. A little attention, care, time spent on feeding and care - and among the pets a loyal and reliable friend may appear: a hamster, a rabbit, a rat or a parrot.
Animals of the living corner serve as an excellent visual aid. On the example of such exhibits, it is easier to conduct biology classes and thematic seminars. Caring and caring for animals is taught to work, develop a sense of responsibility.
Many in the process of training begin to deal in depth with nature. Some prefer photography, others do research. Based on their observations, children begin to systematize and synthesize information, and the results are presented in the form of interesting presentations.
Features
Animals of the living area should be accessible to children and not pose a danger to them. It is suggested that keeping animals should not be an end in itself. The collection is designed to broaden the horizons of knowledge and ideas about the environment and nature of the native land. The participation of children in feeding animals and caring for them are designed to form a personality and develop socially important properties and functions of a future member of society. To ensure that the corner fits organically into the room and does not cause discomfort when visiting it, care should be taken to cleanliness and sanitary hygiene.
By placing aquariums, terrariums, cages and aviaries in the room, it is advisable to combine them with the plant forms that are most suitable for the environment. The presence on the walls of thematic stands (dummies, stuffed animals) will help children better understand the structure of the body, skeleton, feeding characteristics and the maintenance of various species. Do not divide the corner into zones for junior and high school students. General care stimulates a sense of responsibility.
Living Area Care
Children, gradually entering the course of things, can take on some of the cares of pets. A functional living area at school requires more effort than would be necessary to breed only plant forms. Added cares about the acquisition and preparation of feed, its storage, obtaining veterinary certificates and permits, maintaining cleanliness and sanitary standards.
Starting from a small corner of nature, you can try adding an aquarium and see how interest and attendance change. At the next stage, you can get snails, frogs, toads, newts. It is worth settling reptiles and small mammals, only realizing that there will be proper support from the children, their parents and from the school administration.
Despite the complexity, setting up the watch is quite real. Now it is possible to provide temperature and lighting control, and watering and distribution of feed at the weekend can be automated. In this mode, the corner can be open for visits up to six days a week.
Aquarium
As a rule, the expansion of the corner of nature begins with the appearance of fish in it. For aquarium maintenance, even simple small crucians or loaches caught in a pond are quite suitable. They are not particularly demanding on the conditions of detention and feed. Of the decorative species at the initial stage, it is recommended to have guppies, veil-tails, and swordsmen.
In the aquarium can live not only fish from a living corner. It is within its power to provide conditions for the maintenance of hydra, diving beetles, snails, daphnia. In combination with a variety of aquatic vegetation, you can create a kind of natural reservoir. Elodea, rdest, hornwort and other unpretentious species will make the aquarium an interesting object for study and observation.
Hamsters
A feature of these animals is daytime sleep. They are ready to stay awake actively towards evening. In addition to a place to relax, they should have enough space for walking. In the house you can equip several levels connected by ladders, as well as equip a running wheel, tunnels so that they would not be bored when walking in a confined space.
When planning a living corner at school, it should be remembered that it is impossible to settle several animals of this species in one cage, they are unlikely to get along together. The optimum temperature regime for them is 20-25 ° C. A cage needs a drinker, a bowl for food, for sand, a stone for grinding teeth, a filler on the bottom. Cleaned in a cage twice a week.
You can add fruits, vegetables, lettuce, fresh greens to grain feed mixtures. They will eat carrots, zucchini, pumpkin, eat persimmons, pears and apples. Females waiting for offspring should be additionally fed with low-fat cottage cheese, boiled egg yolk or chicken meat.
Turtle
Fans of these smart reptiles claim that it is very easy to attach to them. It is believed that turtles like to be stroked on their shells. With proper care, pets can live long in a living corner, delighting visitors with their silent and funny movements.
They cannot live in a box. The minimum size of the terrarium is from 60 cm in length and up to 40 cm in width and height. Land turtles are undemanding to care for. For the soil using sawdust, hay, wood chips, shell rock mixed with coarse washed sand, coarse pebbles. A heating lamp and ultraviolet are needed. Plants in a terrarium with a turtle do not live long: it eats them. You can feed it with fruits and berries, vegetables and fresh herbs (clover, dandelion).
Care for turtles does not cause worries, if properly equip her habitat. Experts advise using an absorbent film for the bottom layer in the terrarium, and a rubber hole mat on top. It is already possible to place soil on it. Use a bowl for feeding. It is necessary to ensure that pets do not eat the soil or its substitute. If this happens, you should think about replacing it and review the diet, adding vitamins and minerals.
Hedgehogs
These creatures prefer to stay awake at night. It’s hard to see them during the day. Taming enough to pick up does not work. In winter, hedgehogs do hibernate. Since the end of autumn, they have been preparing a nest for themselves from any garbage (threads, newspapers, rags). Closer to winter, they become lethargic, go out only when they are hungry. You can’t wake a sleeping hedgehog. He becomes vulnerable to disease and will not be able to lead a normal life until spring. Its enclosure with a nest must be moved to a cool and rain-protected place.
To live, the hedgehog needs more free space. On the territory as close as possible to the natural habitat, various rubbish should be present, which he will gradually collect for the construction of the nest. Hedgehogs as animals of a living corner are picky. It is best to purchase special food for hedgehogs. But if necessary, replace it with meat, sometimes offer milk with crushed bread, cottage cheese and apples. But since hedgehogs are insectivorous, they need various beetles or grasshoppers for the digestive organs to function properly. If you do not give them at all, the hedgehog will hurt. For future use, this food can be dried in order to feed pets in spring and autumn.
Semi-finished products, products with preservatives (sausages, smoked meats), dry food for dogs or cats should not be offered to them. It is impossible to release into the wild a hedgehog born in captivity or for a long time living in an artificial environment: it will die.
Other inhabitants of the living area
In addition to the above pets, you can contain lizards, snakes, white mice, rats, squirrels, rabbits. Guinea pigs also easily take root in captivity. They eat everything that they give (hay, bran, vegetables), but are demanding of the conditions of detention. These rodents will not survive in damp and damp rooms, as they are prone to disease.
Of the birds, parrots are good. These are beautiful pets, they can live in a school corner for a decade or more, tolerate bondage and quickly get used to the conditions. Their friendly twittering, attempts to imitate speech, as well as curiosity and ingenuity will delight children.
