Summary
Students will bring a stuff animal to school and create a class graph and individual pet books.
Materials
One per class:
- The Perfect Pet, by Courtney Baker
- Franklin Wants a Pet, by Paulette Bourgeois and Brenda Clark
One per student:
Additional Resources
- The Perfect Pet, by Courtney Baker; ISBN 0439471117
- Franklin Wants a Pet, by Paulette Bourgeois and Brenda Clark;
ISBN 0613002369
- Good Dog Carl, by Alexandra Day; ISBN 0-590-72629-3
- The Pet that I Want, by Mary Packard; ISBN 0-590-48512-1
- Pet Show, by Ezra Jack Keats; ISBN 0-02-179071-X
Background for Teachers
There are different kinds of animals. Familiar animal categories are
birds, insects, mammals, reptiles, and fish. Animals are all around us.
Some animals are tame, others are wild. Tame animals are animals that
live with or around people. When animals live with people they are
called pets. People need to take care of pets by providing food and
shelter.
Intended Learning Outcomes
1. Demonstrate a positive learning attitude.
5. Understand and use basic concepts and skills.
6. Communicate clearly in oral, artistic, written, and nonverbal form.
Instructional Procedures
Invitation to Learn
Students should be asked ahead of time to bring their favorite stuffed
animal. Ask students what they think would be the perfect pet. Read The
Perfect Pet by Courtney Baker.
Instructional Procedures
- Tell the students that they are going to make a graph of all the
stuffed pet animals they brought today.
- Give each student a copy of Our Classroom Stuffed Animals graph.
- Read the name of the first animal. Have all students who
brought that animal bring their pet up to the front. Have the
class count and graph the number of pets.
- Continue the same way with all the animals listed. If an animal
is brought that is not listed, have the students write the animal
name in the blank squares and graph.
- Discuss the findings of the graph. Determine which animal
there was the most of, the least, and the same.
- Discuss which pet animal could be a real pet and which could not.
Talk about tame and wild animals.
- Pass out the writing booklet entitled My Pet Book to
each student. Have students read the first page together and fill in
the sentence. Have each student illustrate what his/her pet looks
like. Have students finish the booklet indpendently.
Extensions
Language Arts Research Activity
- Explain to each student that s/he is going to have a chance to
teach the class an interesting fact about a pet.
- Demonstrate how each student will present his/her information to
the class by showing the Animal Fact Wheel. Each
student will choose an animal and learn what they eat, what the
baby animal is called, how the animal moves, and one additional
interesting fact.
- Discuss where students can look to find this information.
- Assign each student a day and time to present his/her project.
Math Activity
- Read the book Franklin Wants a Pet.
- Discuss what kind of care different pets need.
- Tell students that today they are going to subtract pets. Distribute Subtraction handout and a small cup of goldfish crackers
to each student. Have each student place the amount of goldfish
shown on the first problem. Explain that subtraction also means“take away” or “minus” and is represented by subtraction sign (-).
Ask the class how we could subtract some goldfish (by eating
them). Work through each problem together as a class.
- Have students sort pets in a variety of ways (e.g., size, number of
legs, tame or wild, etc.).
Family Connections
- Have students make a graph of what each family member (or
friends) would choose for their favorite pet.
- Have students make books at home with some of the listed titles:
- My Favorite Make Believe Pet
- Things I Like To Do With My Pet
- Pet Tricks
- Places We Go Together
Assessment Plan
- The assessment for these activities comes through the
involvement of the activity. Can the student graph the pets that are
brought to class? Can s/he read the graph to answer questions?
Can the student complete the subtraction problems without
teacher intervention? As the student presents his/her Animal Fact
Wheel, make sure the wheel is complete. Can s/he share a fact
about the animal?
Created: 09/10/2004
Updated: 10/31/2022
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