Who Let the Dogs Out?.....

Well, first grade would like to let all the dogs out at the Naperville Area Humane Society after a presentation by Kristen Funk, a representative from the organization.

We decided at the beginning of the school year to have a service project that would benefit a local shelter.  We got in touch with Ms. Funk and arranged to have her give a presentation to both first grade classes.

The students learned so much about how the animals get into the shelter, how they are taken care of, how they need volunteers and donations to care for the animals.

She also showed some very cute videos of the animals playing with toys that were made from things that people have around the house--cats playing in a shopping bag, and a dog tearing apart a cereal box that had treats hidden inside.

Which was perfect, because we were able to present to her our dog toy gifts that we made for our service project.

A few weeks ago, we had parents donate long white socks, and fabric markers.  We had the students save their water bottles and with those items and throw in  in a whole lot of fun and we had our idea: The noisy recycled water bottle sock!
First, we started making designs on the socks because what dog wants a plain white sock to play with?

Then we had to stuff the water bottle in the sock (which was a bit of a challenge) and tie the opening of the sock in a knot. The dogs can then chew on the water bottle and it makes a crazy crunching sound.  With the knot on the end, the dogs can swing it around--we just hope they don't knock anything over...

Ms. Funk was so happy to have these gifts for the animals.  She promised to send us a picture of the dogs playing with them!

Since we couldn't adopt all of the animals at the shelter, we felt good about giving them a little love to make their days at the shelter a little happier until they find their forever home.