All About Cats and Dogs - A SciShow Kids Compilation

SciShow Kids has produced a lot of fun and educational videos over the last six years. I've featured some of those videos in blog posts. Some of my favorite are the videos about animals including those about cats and dogs. In their latest release, SciShow Kids combined some of their previous videos to create one long video full of interesting facts about cats and dogs. 

Some of the many things viewers can learn by watching Cats and Dogs include:

• How well cats can hear. 
• The origins of cat domestication. 
• The relationship of dogs and wolves. 
• Why dogs wiggle their nostrils independently. 
• What defines a big cat.
• The role of microbes in a dog's coat. 
• Why animals have tails. 

Applications for Education
This video could be a great one to show to elementary school students as part of a lesson about animals and their adaptations. Before showing the video to my students I'd probably ask them to list any of the fun facts that they already know about pet dogs and pet cats. Then after they watch the video have them list some of the new fun pet facts they learned.

Common Craft: Dress Your Pet for Halloween

Moose, Winston, and Tank
are ready for Halloween

CommonCraft has a free collection of Halloween cut-outs you can use to dress your pets up for Halloween. All you need to do to get started is add a picture of your pet to your presentation software such as Keynote, PowerPoint, Photoshop, Google Slides, or Google Drawings and download the file that contains over 120 Creature cut-outs. The step-by-step directions are located on the CommonCraft website.

If you dress up your pet for Halloween, please share a picture on Twitter with the hashtag #HalloweenCreaturePets. Share your picture with the hashtag by November 1 to have your name entered in a drawing to win a FreeTech4Teachers mug.

Applications for Education
While this activity is mostly just for fun, it can be used as a way to introduce students to basic photo editing and manipulation.

Grants for Pets in the Classroom

Because of student allergies my school like a lot of others no longer allows pets in the classroom. But if you are fortunate enough to work in a school that does allow pets, Pets in the Classroom could be a great resource for you.

Pets in the Classroom provides classroom grants to teachers who would like to have mammal or fish pets in their classrooms. In addition to the grant program, Pets in the Classroom offers some good suggestions about creating pet-centered lessons for elementary school students. Even if you do not have a classroom pet you can still utilize some of the lesson ideas in your classroom.

Pet Fundango - Make Pets a Part of Your Lessons

When I was in the sixth grade we had guinea pigs (named Chubby and Checkers) and hamsters in our classroom. It was great fun and a good lesson in communal responsibility. Each week a different classmate was selected (if the parents had consented) to take the guinea pigs home for the weekend. In fact, the weekend that my next door neighbor took Chubby and Checkers home, Chubby had babies.

Pet Fundango is a website designed for elementary school teachers who have small pets in their classrooms. Pet Fundango offers nineteen lesson plans based around small classroom pets. Some of the lesson plans require you to have a classroom pet, but most of them do not. For example, the lesson plan Fur, Feathers, and Scales can be used with K-2 students even if you don't have classroom pets.

Applications for Education
If you're an elementary school teacher considering bringing a small pet into your classroom, Pet Fundango is the site for you. In addition to lesson plans, Pet Fundango offers helpful advice about bringing a pet into your classroom.

Lee Lefever Explains Where Goldfish Come From

Lee Lefever, the creator of the amazing Common Craft videos, recently presented at Ignite Seattle. His talk, embedded below, explains where goldfish come from. If you have goldfish in your classroom, have students that have goldfish, or you're just curious about where goldfish come from in the US, watch the video.

Pet Fundango - Lesson Plans Involving Classroom Pets

When I was in the sixth grade we had guinea pigs (named Chubby and Checkers) and hamsters in our classroom. It was great fun and a good lesson in communal responsibility. Each week a different classmate was selected (if the parents had consented) to take the guinea pigs home for the weekend. In fact, the weekend that my next door neighbor took Chubby and Checkers home, Chubby had babies.

Pet Fundango is a website designed for elementary school teachers who have small pets in their classrooms. Pet Fundango offers nineteen lesson plans based around small classroom pets. Some of the lesson plans require you to have a classroom pet, but most of them do not. For example, the lesson plan Fur, Feathers, and Scales can be used with K-2 students even if you don't have classroom pets.

Applications for Education
If you're an elementary school teacher considering bringing a small pet into your classroom, Pet Fundango is the site for you. In addition to lesson plans, Pet Fundango offers helpful advice about bringing a pet into your classroom.