Earlier this year, Pets in the Classroom did a series of blogs on ways to incorporate classroom pets into your curriculum.  As you prepare for the new school year, we thought we would revisit some of those ideas in order to refresh the minds of teachers who have been following our blog for a while, and to give those new to Pets in the Classroom some new ideas.

Language Arts:

• Have the students come up with different words that describe your pet (fish, mammal, black, brown, scaly, furry, energetic, calm, etc.) and use these words in your grammar lessons.
• Use your classroom pet as a source of inspiration for creative writing.
• Do your students write in journals?  Have your students write about different pet-related topics.

Science Lessons:

• Use your classroom pet in your anatomy lessons.
• Study what your pet needs to survive – diet, exercise requirements, environment, and climate.
• Make a scientific study of your pet. Observe its habits and behavior patterns.

History Lessons:

• Have your students research the background of your classroom pet.
• Have your students interview a parent, grandparent, relative, or another acquaintance on the different pets they have come in contact with in their lives.

Art Lessons:

• Have your students sketch your pet over a period of time using different methods – colors, pencil, markers, paint.
• Have your students focus on drawing the pet but assign different details for them to focus on.
• Have your students make collages using pictures that tell about your classroom pet.

Math Lessons:

• Use your pet food as a tool to demonstrate how fractions and measurements work.
• If you are teaching time, use your pet’s schedule to help aid your lesson.
• Have your students calculate the cost of keeping a pet for a certain period of time (week, month, school year, year).

This is just a summary of ideas for incorporating pets into your classroom.  For more details, click on each heading to view the full blog on that subject.

And if you have any great ideas on how to incorporate pets into your lesson plan, please share them with us on our Facebook or Google+ page!