January 2015
Start the new year with new lessons and
presentations that will impact your students in a meaningful way – while also
teaching the Ministry of Education’s prescribed learning outcomes.
This year we are introducing new lessons in math,
science, social studies and language arts* which focus on cat
overpopulation. Use one or all of them in your grade 5-7 classroom. Lessons are
interactive and thought provoking, challenging students to come up with
solutions to the community cat overpopulation problem.
Also new this year are lessons on social
justice. Practising their critical thinking skills, students can use animal
welfare issues as a bridge to ease into discussion of more sensitive and
personal social justice issues such as racism and stereotyping.
Look for brochures
in your staff room that outline all of the BC SPCA presentations and lessons
available for your grade, or request
a copy of one or all of the units today.
*Hunter, the book reviewed in this
installment of e-Teacher, is used along with Eric Walters’ Catboy in the language arts lesson on cat overpopulation.
Hunter by Eric Walters
In this follow-up to his young adult novel,
Catboy, about a boy named Taylor
trying to save a feral cat colony at a junkyard, Eric Walters tells the same
story, this time from the point of view of one of the feral cats, Hunter.
Based on previous experiences, Hunter
distrusts humans. How will he react when Taylor and his friends start showing up
at the junkyard? Will he grow to trust them? The novel’s perspective gives
students the chance to consider how feral cats might view human behaviour and
to better understand the differences between feral and domestic cats.
Anthropomorphizing is used for the purpose of the point of view as well as some
aspects of the plot; while not always realistic, this approach does work to
evoke empathy in the reader. Unfortunately, some animal welfare issues are not
addressed; most notably, the opportunity to mention spay/neuter to prevent
overpopulation is lost.
Suitable for students in grades 4 and up, Hunter is sure to entertain, while also
offering educators a springboard to animal welfare-related lessons and
discussion.
Read more BC SPCA book recommendations.
This month, in keeping with the cat
overpopulation theme, why not hold a jelly bean jar contest to guess the number
of kittens that can be born from one unspayed cat and her unspayed offspring?
Use the math lesson from our new cat
overpopulation unit to find the answer and then count out the number of jelly
beans equivalent to the total number of kittens born over two years. Put the
jelly beans in a jar and let students enter their guess for a chance to win the
entire jar of jelly beans. Announce the winner over the school intercom and include
information on the importance of spaying and neutering pets. It’s a problem we
can ‘fix’!
With temperatures dropping this winter, it’s
crucial to keep all our family members, both two legged and four legged, safe and warm.
Meet a dog who was left outdoors due to having
accidents in the house but is now learning to live indoors with his new foster
family. Learn what to do if you know of an animal who is left outdoors and find
tips on making the transition of bringing your outdoor animal inside.
Read more about this and
other news items that you can discuss with your class.
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