Making the Right Choice (Gr. 3-5)
What do animals need to be happy and healthy? Which animals make good pets? Students will gain a deeper understanding of natural behaviours of animals kept as pets and reflect on whether we can provide an engaging environment. The lessons are a fun, realistic way for kids to use math and critical thinking skills to explore what’s needed to be a responsible animal caregiver.
- What’s it all going to cost?
- Is there enough time today?
- Pet matching
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You Can Make a Difference (Gr. 3-7)
How can you improve the lives of animals? After learning about animal issues, students will develop creative solutions to improve animals’ lives and become animal advocates in their community.
The activities in You Can Make a Difference help students advocate for animals. Developing skills in responsible advocacy enables them to build confidence to speak up for causes they believe in.
You Can Make a Difference is designed to show students a variety of approaches they can apply to any social cause.
- Creating a good poster or display
- Planning a fundraising event
- Giving an engaging presentation
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The Farm-Food Connection (Gr. 4-10)
Where does our food come from? Students will explore the lives of farm animals, what food labels mean and way in which we can make positive change for farm animals.
By looking at the natural behaviours of chickens and their living conditions, students will think critically about where their food comes from. The lessons are intended to be used after each chapter in the corresponding video.
- Mind map (pre-video lesson)
- Test your chicken IQ (pre-video lesson)
- Introduction
- Anatomy of a chicken
- Behaviours of chickens
- Nutrition for chickens
- Living conditions
- Egg development
- Grading eggs
- Meat versus egg chickens
- What to buy
- Who is Ian Duncan?
- Extension activities
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Cats in the Community (Gr. 4-6)
What effects do outdoor cats have on the community and the ecosystem? Realistic, cross-curricular activities engage students to use critical thinking skills, evaluate data, predict outcomes and develop creative solutions to address the issue.
- Community cats and the ecosystem (science lesson)
- Catistics (social studies lesson)
- Cat math (math lesson)
- Catboy: a novel study on pet overpopulation (language arts lesson)
- Ginger’s story: highlighting the issue of pet overpopulation, and what life can be like for an outdoor cat
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Including Animals in Social Justice (Gr. 6-12)
How do we perceive animals in our society? Students will investigate beliefs and stereotypes, question socially accepted practices and analyze animal welfare issues in our world today.
Lessons explore social justice issues such as inequality, stereotyping and our values and beliefs in relation to animals. Using animals as a bridge to discuss social justice issues helps ease students into sensitive and personal issues such as racism and stereotyping.
- Stereotypes and influences on our beliefs
- Animals in society/media literacy
- Animal welfare: understanding the terms and discovering the issues
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Bite Free (all grades)
Why do animals bite? By giving students the tools to read animal body language, we help them understand how to interact safely and responsibly with pets.