Page 2 - Kind News Teacher Guide, September/October 2023

COMMON CORE, NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS (NGSS), AND CASEL-ALIGNED ACTIVITIES

Third grade: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in
groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing
their own clearly. CASEL Core Competencies: Social Awareness, Self-Awareness
To go with, “Which Animal Are You?”: Ask students to take the quiz and share with a partner (as they are comfortable)
which animal they were most like. Do they think the description matches their personality? Why or why not? Do they think
of animals as having specific personalities? Why or why not? Then ask them to think about something fun they would like to
know about their classmates. Ask them to create their own creative multiple choice quiz for their classmates to take. Quiz
ideas might include:
• Which season of the year are you? • How “green” is your thumb?
• Which veggie are you? • Which pet are you? (with real pets they have or may know)

After creating their quizzes, ask students to write descriptions for the answer options (like the “Mostly As, Mostly Bs, in
the “Which Animal Are You?” quiz). Ask them to switch with a partner and take each others’ quizzes. Afterwards, reflect:
Was this challenging? Why or why not? How did they find ways to be creative?
For fun, allow students to access the Kind News archives at KindNews.org/archives and find the story on the animal
they got! For more on animal personalities, check out our Sept/Oct 2020 issue at KindNews.org/sept20.

Fourth grade: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.4.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one,
in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and
expressing their own clearly. CASEL Core Competencies: Responsible Decision-Making, Social Awareness
To go with Humane Hero, “Reed Feeds Pets in Need”: After reading the article, discuss how Reed took action to
help others. What community needs were there, and what did he do to meet them? Then ask the students to take
five minutes and think of as many needs that people or animals in their community have. Students can write their
thoughts on paper or virtual sticky notes, and you can group the notes that list the same need together. Choose one
or two of the most mentioned needs to focus on, and ask students to brainstorm ways to help in small groups. Some
questions to consider:
• What is the need? Who has the need? • Pick your favorite way to help. What resources (either physical
• Why is it important? ones like materials, or people, like adults to supervise or drive)
• What ideas do you have to help your community? would you need to accomplish your idea?
• What are some challenges with accomplishing this idea?
To extend the activity, students could pick a service project to do either in small groups or as a class.

Fifth grade activity: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.5.5: Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, sound) and
visual displays in presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.
CASEL Core Competencies: Responsible Decision-Making, Self-Awareness
To go with “Can You Tell When a Dog is Happy or Scared?”: After reading the article, ask students if they are afraid of
dogs or if they know someone who is. Ask them to guess why some people develop a fear of dogs. Share some statistics
on dog bites: According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, children are more likely than adults to be bitten
by a dog. Ask students why they think this is. Then ask them what ideas they have for showing younger students how to
recognize and react to scared dogs, and choose one way to do so. Ideas may include:
• Create a photo gallery of happy/relaxed and scared dogs, and have the younger children guess how the dogs are
feeling in each photo. Then review safe behaviors for each kind of dog.
• Create a physical or digital flipbook or video that shows happy and scared dogs, with appropriate ways to react
listed for each.
• Act out a skit in which they show the appropriate ways to interact with dogs who seem relaxed or scared, with
someone playing a dog and someone playing a person. Allow the audience to guess how the “dog” is feeling before
the person reacts. OPPOSITE PAGE: NATALIAVO/BIGSTOCKPHOTO.COM.
If possible, have students teach their “lessons” to a younger class. Reflect on the presentations afterwards. Do they think
their audience learned something new? What did they do really well? What could they have done differently?
For more information, visit https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/dog-bite-prevention.

Flip to the front of the back cover for a sixth grade activity!