Pet Choice (Part Three)

Objectives:
1. Students learn to compromise.
2. Students will participate in group planning and discussion.
3. Introduce students to the Internet.
4. Students will communicate ideas based on gathered information.
5. Students will use visuals to present information orally on a topic.

Key Words: compromise, research, cooperatively

Procedure:
Students were divided into pairs. They were told they would be working together for the final part of the unit. Each pair had to agree upon a pet that they wanted to learn more about through research.

1. Groups' choices for their final pet selection. One group had a difficult time agreeing on their pet. After some negotiations and strong persuasion by one of the participants they finally came to an agreement. Another group had a disagreement over the name to call their pet. They were unable to compromise so it required the teacher's solution - placing both names on slips of paper and pulling one out from a hat.

Once the pet was chosen the students had to formulate questions that they wanted answered in their research. Examples of questions asked - How big does it get? What does it eat? What does it play with? Are they friendly? The teacher had already bookmarked sites on the Internet relevant to each animal being researched. The students came to the teacher with their questions and the teacher read the information from the Internet. The teacher wrote down the information as a draft to be copied over by the students.

2. Looking up information on the Internet. Unfortunately, the students experienced the temperament of the school's Internet connection as several times the Internet "went down."

	Conducting Research on  the Internet

3. Making our pet homes. The final project required each group to make a home for their pet that reinforced the information they had learned about being a responsible pet owner. The following is a list of materials used for making our pet homes:  shoeboxes, toilet paper rolls, styrofoam cups, paint, cut up newspaper, scissors, markers, paper fasteners, pipe cleaners, and felt. Construction paper and crayons were used to make the chosen individual pets. I learned that it is essential to have all the materials easily accessible during this activity. Also, I had the creative talents and support of the assigned classroom paraprofessional, Helen Rose Becker, to assist during this part of the project. That enabled more hands-on help to the smaller groups as they worked to complete their pet homes. The project was time consuming but the end result was worth every minute. The children took pride in their completed homes.

4. The final written project. A written and oral presentation was produced by each group.

5. Final Projects - Our Virtual Pet Homes

6. Being a Responsible Pet Owner - The students were responsible for the care and entertainment of their pets. There were two children to each group for the care and responsibility. The children were very creative in finding the time to make sure that the job was done. This activity developed their cooperative skills. At first, these skills had to be reviewed when it was observed the stronger personality of the pair might take over the pet's care and responsibility.

	Responsible Pet Owners

Students kept a pet care chart for three weeks. Each day they had to check off that they had cleaned, fed, exercised, watered and played with their pet.

Our Pet __________________ _____________________      ___________________   Clean Exercise Feed Water Play Monday           Tuesday           Wednesday           Thursday           Friday             Monday           Tuesday           Wednesday           Thursday           Friday             Monday           Tuesday           Wednesday           Thursday           Friday

Assessment:

Completion of pet home.

Written report on important facts relevant to their chosen pet.

Oral report using the pet home and written report.

Demonstrated ability to work cooperatively with classmate.

Culminating Activity

A field trip was planned ahead of time to visit the local pet store. I shared the details of the unit with the owner and he was expecting us. He allowed the children to take turns touching some of the animals but we made sure that the students were mindful of how the animal might feel - SCARED. There was a lot of interest generated from the visit to investigate snakes. As a result the class returned to school with great enthusiasm to research and create a snake feature as part as an extension to this unit. This is what teaching is all about!       fun activity involving snakes

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