Education - Schools
Schools page
Do you know of some young fellas that are ready to learn about animal care? When working with schools, it’s important to think about the needs of teachers and students. A school student has a lot to learn and a curriculum already full of essential learning targets. Working with this will help everyone learn what they need to.
Each student will also have their own preferred ways of learning and interests. For example, be prepared to include visual, practical, verbal, musical and text based learning in your program. Read more on working with Indigenous kids here.
Involving elders, parents and linguists makes a huge difference in the impact of a program. Students need to feel that what they are learning is important to the whole community, not just in the school. Working with community values, concerns, languages, processes and stories are all ways to make sure this happens. Respect for animals and each other, caring for family, and keeping strong and healthy are important concepts in many Indigenous cultures. Having a respected elder talk to the students on these points is a joy to watch.
Inviting EHW and vets into the classroom to talk about their jobs also links students to what’s going on in the community. EHW or vet talks can be integrated into many curriculum areas such as Life Roles, Health and Physical Education, and Life and Living.
School program ideas
Lower primary (Stage 1, grades K-2)
- ‘Being a friend to your dog’ Photo book made at Kintore, NT
- ‘Recognising feelings’ lesson
Middle primary (Stage 2, grades 3-4)
- ‘Dogs' Needs’ lesson plan: based on a lesson developed at Maningrida, NT
- 'Dogs' Needs' participation certificate (colour in)
- Make a dog sock puppet, act out dog stories
- Addition and subtraction dog care worksheets
Upper primary (Stage 3, grades 5-6) and High school (Post primary)
- Invite the EHW and/or vet to talk to the class then make a poster or pamphlet on ‘What dogs need’
- Make a set of instructions e.g. ‘How to wash a dog’
- Multiplication division and fractions dog care worksheets
- Dog survey lesson plan: Get students to do a dog survey, write up and analyse the data in a spreadsheet. Use this data in the Dog Health Program. Based on Anne Celan’s program developed at Ramingining school.
Stories
Stage 1
- ‘Can I Pat That Dog?’ Shows picture-examples of dog behaviours that kids should recognise means ‘don’t pat this dog’ - for example, what a dog looks like when he's angry or afraid. Also shown are when a dog should never be approached: such as when she's eating, or working, or has pups. See review here.
- ‘Wanja, One Smart Dog: the story of a dog in Redfern’ Indig Readers series. View the whole story online.
- Leonie Norrington’s book ‘Look, See, Look at me’ A picture book of a young Indigenous child and their antics with their dog. Reviews by teachers 
- ‘Little White Dogs Can’t Jump’ featured in the NT Library’s National Simultaneous Storytime to many remote schools, a story of a short white dog and his attempts to get into the family car.Stage 2
- ‘Wanja, One Smart Dog: the story of a dog in Redfern’ A day in the life of an observant dog in Redfern, Sydney. Part of the Indig Readers series. View the whole story online
- ‘Ms Johnstone to the Rescue’: how a Wilcannia school teacher deals with 2 dogs fighting in the school yard. Part of the Indig Readers series. View the whole story online.- Bwgcolman foal readers. Publishedby DPI Queensland's Animal Welfare unit, these are a set of four readers from Palm Island about a local boy and his experiences caring for horses.
Stage 3 and Older readers
- Bwgcolman foal readers. Publishedby DPI queensland, a set of four readers from Palm Island about a local boy and his experiences caring for horses. - Yirra and her deadly dog, Demon Written by Aboriginal author and school teacher Anita Heiss and her largely Aborignal class, this 128 page novella humorously depicts the struggles of Yirra and her untrained and out of control husky Demon.
Dust Echoes is also a fantastic site for animated Aboriginal Dreaming stories that you view online: http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/dustEchoesFlash.htm
Use them as an example and get the computer savvy kids to make their own stories.
Lesson Plans
All our lesson plans are works in progress and we love to hear feedback!
- 'Recognising Feelings' Stage 1: compares dogs' feelings to people's feelings, and demonstrates how to stay safe around dogs
- 'Dogs Needs' Stage 2: compares what dogs need to stay happy and healthy to people's needs. Based on Deb Bisa's program at Maningrida School.
- 'Dog Talk' Stage 2: a more detailed lesson on identifying dogs' feelings
- Dog survey lesson plan, Stage 3 and up. Get students to do a dog survey, write up and analyse the data in a spreadsheet. Use this data in the Dog Health Program. Based on Anne Celan’s program developed at Ramingining school.
Songs
Colour ins
AMRRIC has developped a series of colour ins for students to colour and display around the classroom to serve as a visual reminder of dog's needs.
All the colour visual resources in ‘Conducting Dog Health Programs in Indigenous Communities- An Environmental Health Practitioners Guide’ are also reproduced in black and white line drawings on the back, for ease of photocopying to use
in schools or community education.
in schools or community education.Picture Books
Powerpoints
AMRRIC is currently working on short downloadable powerpoint shows on the following topics:
- Too many dogs: population, dog breeding and the desexing operation
- Dog talk: recognising dog behaviour and avoiding bites
- Healthy Dogs, Healthy People: links between dog health and community health
Contact us for more information
Other animal care school program resources
Many other organisations produce resources that could be useful to you, including colour ins, crosswords, quizzes and games. Not all are entirely relevant for all community situations, but many are.
International Animal Welfare Education (‘IN AWE’) Programme
initiated by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA)
Dare to Lead www.daretolead.edu.au
