Children learn about service animals.
Children learn about service animals.
What you'll need
- pictures of service animals
- picture of service animal sign
Step by step
Step 1
Sometimes animals can be more than just a pet. Some animals, most commonly dogs, are trained by special community helpers to learn skills and help people with disabilities. Certain kinds of dogs can be trained to help guide a person who has trouble seeing or hearing. Some dogs are trained to help search for lost people.
Step 2
Show children pictures of service animals. Display a picture of a service animal sign. A service animal sign alerts people that a service animal is in the area to help. Service animals are permitted to go in places where other animals are not allowed. Do the children know anyone who has a service animal? Remind them that most service animals are not allowed to interact with others when they are working with their human. They should not be petted or approached.
Playful questions
Have you seen a working police service dog? Tell us about it!
How do you think service animals can help their owners?
Learning outcomes
Science
Observation and Inquiry
Uses senses to make increasingly complex observations in the environment; makes simple predictions and plans to carry out investigations; describes observations.
Science
Life Science
Groups and classifies living things by features; investigates and compares living vs. non-living things; shows understanding and describes life cycles; knows and explains basic needs of living things (food chains, energy from sun, habitats).
Social Studies
Culture, Family, and Community
Shows awareness of and appreciation for family and cultural stories, music, and rhymes; identifies cultural characteristics of self, family, and community
Shows awareness of diverse backgrounds among the cultural characteristics of people, families, and communities; demonstrates an appreciation for arts, music, and world culture
Recognizes and identifies some community helpers, parents' jobs, and careers; adopts roles of family and community helpers during dramatic play with realistic props
Identifies and describes the roles of a variety of community helpers, parents' jobs, and careers; adopts wide variety of family and community helper roles during dramatic play
Social Studies
Government, Economics, and Technology
Demonstrates growing awareness of and follows classroom, home, and community rules with adult reminders; tells why rules are important
Recognizes classroom and community rules; follows established rules and talks about importance of rules/consequences, rights of self and others; begins to understand fairness and personal responsibilities; carries out classroom responsibilities with reminders; demonstrates growing awareness of governance, democracy