ORWIGSBURG - Toro the bull made an appearance to second- grade students at Blue Mountain Elementary East on Monday.
Children had recently finished reading "Pumpkin Fiesta" which has a bull as a character and had the opportunity to meet a real one.
Toro is a 3-week-old red Holstein calf and is the 4-H project of Casmira Keller, 8, of Orwigsburg, a second-grader at the school.
She said she named him Toro after the book the class read. Toro will be shown at the Schuylkill County Fair and sold later this year. This was his first time taking a trip.
Last year, her brother, Grayden, showed fourth-grade students his calf, Mr. Brown.
Toro lives at a farm nearby and Casmira takes care of him twice a day by feeding him and giving him milk. She also has to clean his hay once a week. Weighing about 100 pounds, the brown and white bull had no problem keeping the 100 plus students' attention.
"Toro will be over 400 pounds in August," Alicia Keller, Casmira's mom, said.
"We give Toro milk two times a day because he's a baby, He eats grain that actually has molasses in it," Keller said.
When asked if he had teeth, Casmira said he does but only on the bottom of his mouth.
Keller said because he does not eat meat because he doesn't have top teeth.
And despite a boy wearing red in the front of the group, Toro did not react.
"Red doesn't scare him (meaning Toro)" Keller said, adding the animals have bad eyesight.
Megan Hufford, one of five second-grade teachers outside with the students, said seeing Toro gives the students the chance to see a bull in real life.
After learning about Toro, children split into groups with their teachers and got to pet the bull.
"It felt soft," Erin Mckivigan, 7, said after petting Toro.
Connor Dukmen, 7, of Orwigsburg, really got up close and personal and let Toro suck on his fingers. It felt "tingly," he said.
Keller was happy to provide the experience and was grateful to the district for the opportunity.
"This is an experience a lot of the kids would not get," she said.
Principal David Zula agreed. He said children might not get the chance again.
"This is a great experience for all the students," he said.