Cat and Dog Project...Part 1

“Come on little pup. Let’s go for a walk. You can go to the park to get exercise and see all the other doggies. Come and follow me.” Florence talked to Lachlan the dog as she led him on his leash of glittery beads. Lachlan responded by a “woof, woof” and some dog panting sounds.

Over the next couple of days other animal explorations began as well. In the dramatic play area the family suddenly had a dog and cat. “You need to walk me to the park so I can do all my tricks,” Marcus said from under the table. “Right after you have your milk,” Florence replied.

A “Pet Hotel” began out of magnatiles, where there were separate appartments to keep cats and dogs that don’t have homes. “They have really comfortable sleeping spots in the room. And they have food too.” Siddharth told the group. This continued into a storytelling session where real and fictional tales were told about having animals and about animal adventures.

We came together during a few of our connection times to discuss all of these animal explorations, and our project was launched! We brainstormed and the students articulated that they wanted to learn more about cats and dogs.

-How do we take care of them?

-How can we make sure they are respected and loved?

-Who has them?

-What do they need?

The students explored the library and checked out non-fiction and fiction books about dogs and cats. Through our conversations we started coming up with more and more questions so we decided to write them down. “We should also write down what we find out, right?” Arunika said after looking in depth at a book on cats. “You have to be gentle with a dog, Mei. You can’t pull too hard on their leash. Look, give your baby dog to the daddy dog.” Jamin said.  A.J. added, “I need a lot of walks to get my exercise, so we’d better keep going!”