GR. 1 SCIENCE UNIT

Lessons

1: Animals
2: Animal Charades
3: Animals Shapes
4: Animal Coats
5: Lunch Time
6: Animal Friends
7: Animal Sort
8: Off to Petland
9: Basic Needs for Pets
10: The Pet Vet
11: Staying Alive
12: Animal Habitats
13: Animal Adaptations
14: Animal Homes
15: Staying Alive
16: Animal Life Cycles
17: Animal Babies
18: Birds and Reptiles

LESSON 9: BASIC NEEDS FOR PETS

Background: A pet’s basic needs include food, water, shelter, air and love.

Objective: Describe the basic needs of animals.
The students will identify a pet’s basic needs.

Vocabulary: basic needs, shelter

Quick Peek: The children look at a pet and discuss what its needs are and then illustrate their findings.

Materials:
a pet (small animal in a cage, fish in an aquarium, dog, cat, etc.)
worksheet
pencil
crayons
flipchart or chalkboard

Method:

1. Bring in a small animal in a cage (bird, guinea pig, etc.) or a fish in an aquarium. This animal could be a class pet or one of the children’s pets.
2. Discuss and have the children examine the animal in its human-made environment.
3. Ask: “What things does this animal need to survive?” (food, water, shelter, air, love.) “How does it get them?” (humans provide them.)
4. Discuss how it is an owner’s responsibility to keep their pet well, clean, to teach it good habits and to protect it from sickness.
5. Have the children think about their own pets or of someone they know who has a pet.
6. Hold up the worksheet and explain how you would like the children to draw that pet in the centre, in the circle, and to illustrate in each surrounding circle that pet’s basic needs.
7. To review, and for visual aid, ask the students what those 5 basic needs were that they discussed earlier. List them on the chalkboard or on the flipchart as each is recalled. (food, water, shelter, air, love)

*Book to read with the lesson: A Visiting Dog’s Story by Stephanie Calmenson.

*Video to show with this lesson: Taking Care of Pets with Casey and Finnegan (636.08/Cas).