For nearly four months, McKnight Elementary School teacher Christian Shane has had to vie for the attention of his second-graders while a bunch of brook trout zigzag through a fish tank behind his desk.

Not that he minds: It was his idea to sign up for the Trout in the Classroom project, which gives students the opportunity to raise trout, monitor their life cycle and ultimately release them to their natural habitat.

The big splash for the youngsters, their friends and the fish will come April 5 at the Point Pavilion in North Park Lake. Other students at the North Allegheny school have been shelling out for the "Fifty Cents for a Finny Friend" raffle so that they, too, can get to release one of the 150 fish.

But first things first.

The fish arrived around Thanksgiving at the school in McCandless, to Mr. Shane's surprise.

"They had them in a big styrofoam case," said Mr. Shane, who had thought he was going to have to pick them up at a hatchery.

Instead, he went to the school office to get the case near the end of math class, came back and made his announcement.

"I said, 'OK, our eggs are here,' " he recalled, "and then we all sang 'Happy Birthday.' "

Then, on March 12, the class threw one of the more unusual anniversary parties in school annals: It marked the 100th day since the fish eggs arrived, and Mr. Shane brought in a giant cookie shaped like a fish to celebrate.

It's been a special term for these second-graders, who knew something was up in late October when the 55-gallon fish tank showed up with siphon pumps, a water cooler unit and a half-dozen plastic jugs labeled with pictures of trout.

It took a month for the class to get the trout habitat ready, Mr. Shane said, getting the water and everything else up to snuff.

Students said it was well worth the wait.

"You don't get to see trout grow every day because they're wild animals," said Caleb Garvey, 8, of McCandless. "You normally see them in a stream." Caleb said he couldn't recall ever seeing a trout before, be it in a stream, tank or on a dinner table.

"I haven't seen a lot of trout, either ...," said Corey Watkins, 8, of McCandless. "I only saw a couple of stuffed trout," he said, referring to fish his father had caught and mounted.

"I think I've seen a grown trout at the aquarium with my dad," added Zachary Shuckrow, another 8-year-old from McCandless.

Asked to compare the size of the grown-up fish to the babies, Zachary's outstretched hands first signal a length of about two feet. Then, squinting his eyes and tilting his head just so, his thumb and forefinger form a teeny circle about the size of a pencil eraser.

The fish have grown to about two to three inches, thanks to the tender loving care provided each day by the pupils, who feed them and change their water.

McKnight is one of 13 schools statewide that, thanks to Mr. Shane, received a grant from the Pennsylvania Council of Trout Unlimited. The classroom program is a nationwide project that provides funds for the hands-on, multidisciplinary learning experience.

Mr. Shane has seen plenty of trout in his day but not like this. An avid fisherman, he has caught many grown-up fish and has been able to work his hobby into his real job by sponsoring a fly-tackle club at McKnight called the Tying Tigers.

"But it's pretty different seeing the fish as an educator, seeing that perspective. It's a lot of work," he said, "but it's so powerful, so authentic a teaching tool."

Zachary's father, North Allegheny school board member Alan Shuckrow, couldn't agree more. Hearing about the program at a board meeting is one thing; hearing about it at the dinner table is another.

"It is amazing what some initiative by a teacher can do to make the classroom more enjoyable," Mr. Shuckrow said. "Zach likes school more this year than last year, and I think this trout project has something to do with that."

Mr. Shuckrow said he hoped the venture would become a yearly tradition, adding:

"These are the little things that make life better."