State Approved Curricula

Meeting State Standards

Dear Educators:
Humane education teaches children to care about the animals with whom we share our earth. Humane education fosters respect, responsibility and kindness for all living creatures resulting in children of stronger character, ethics and values.

Below are week-long downloadable curricula for students in grades K-6 that meet national, state and local student performance standards. Please add them to your class and experience the difference humane education makes in your classroom and the lives of your students.

Every state holds classroom educators to standards, which are measured by student achievement. Learn what your state's standards are by contacting your school-district administrative office or your state department of education.

Striving to meet state standards keeps your class running on a tight schedule. Fortunately, humane education is not something you need to add to your busy agenda; you can use it to enhance the standard subjects you are already teaching.

For example, if you do include a "thematic unit" on elephants, you can work to meet standards in reading, math, or science while teaching students to respect all animals.

Another idea is to have the students do the facts and figures of their local animal control budgets and then figure out ways to reduce the budgets and save lives.

One of our books offers 115 pages of lesson plans for grades K - 12. ( 'Lesson Plans' book ) Check out all 7 of them here! SERIES OF & HUMANE EDUCATION BOOKS Over 1,000 pages in all!

Some of the lesson plans we've accumulated over the years:

Are You Ready For A Dog?	What Do Dogs Need?	Making Your Home A Welcoming Place for a Pet.
Why Dogs Tend To Bite	Proper Treatment of Dogs	Learning Safe Behaviors for best relationship
Number of Pets VS number of homes available	Animal Numbers can be controlled	Fact Or Fiction? (Spay and neutering)
	A 12 Month Program to keep humane education in mind

For A complete listing of this program along with downloadable activity Sheets, see http://www.hsmo.org/m_learn/curricula.php

Service Learning

The best way to learn is by doing. Service learning enables students to improve upon academic learning and develop personal skills through structured projects that benefit the community.

You might have students participate in a project that teaches them about the pet overpopulation crisis while getting them involved with helping companion animals in their community.

Read Gabrielle Vincent's A day, A dog, and write a journal entry from the perspective of the abandoned dog in the story.
Collect contact information from local animal rescue groups and shelters. Create a pocket guide to distribute to students so that they know what to do if they find an animal in need.
Brainstorm ways to directly help abandoned animals in the community. Could your class collect blankets, food, and toys for shelter animals, volunteer to walk dogs, or hold a coin drive to sponsor spay and neuter surgeries? These all benefit animals.
Create a bulletin board display to showcase their efforts while reflecting on and appreciating the work they did.

In the end, students learn what it means to be a responsible citizen who is capable of making a positive difference in animals' lives. It can work for computer classes, business management, math problems, social studies and more.