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Pets - Stuffed Animal Day

Additional Core Ties

English Language Arts Kindergarten
Writing Standard 8

English Language Arts Kindergarten
Speaking and Listening Standard 5

Authors

Utah LessonPlans

Summary

Students will bring a stuff animal to school and create a class graph and individual pet books.


Materials

Attachments

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

  1. Tell the students that they are going to make a graph of all the stuffed pet animals they brought today.
  2. Give each student a copy of Our Classroom Stuffed Animals graph.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. Discuss the findings of the graph. Determine which animal there was the most of, the least, and the same.
  6. Discuss which pet animal could be a real pet and which could not. Talk about tame and wild animals.
  7. 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

  1. Explain to each student that s/he is going to have a chance to teach the class an interesting fact about a pet.
  2. 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.
  3. Discuss where students can look to find this information.
  4. Assign each student a day and time to present his/her project.

Math Activity

  1. Read the book Franklin Wants a Pet.
  2. Discuss what kind of care different pets need.
  3. 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.
  4. 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:
    1. My Favorite Make Believe Pet
    2. Things I Like To Do With My Pet
    3. Pet Tricks
    4. 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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