For our youngest visitors: animals have feelings, what every pet needs, gentle hands, wild animals stay wild, and telling a grown-up.
Dogs, cats, horses, pigs, chickens and many other animals can feel pain and fear, and they can feel happy and calm too. A wagging tail, a purr or a pig rolling in cool mud can show a happy animal. Hiding, shaking or growling can show a scared one.
Watch an animal for one minute. Draw how you think it feels and why.
Every pet needs food, clean water, a safe place to live, a doctor called a veterinarian, and gentle care and play every day. Some pets need friends of their own kind too.
Count on your fingers: food, water, home, doctor, love. That is five.
Always ask the owner before you pet an animal. Let it sniff your hand first. Pet softly on its back, not its face or tail, and stop if it moves away. Never pull ears or tails, chase, or pick up an animal that does not want to be held.
Practice gentle hands with a stuffed animal before you meet a real one.
Birds, squirrels, turtles, alligators and other wild animals take care of themselves. Look and listen, but do not touch, chase or feed them. If you find a hurt wild animal, keep back and tell a grown-up, who can call wildlife helpers.
Make a list of wild animals you can see near your home without touching any of them.
Many grown-ups work to keep animals well: veterinarians and vet nurses, shelter workers, wildlife rescuers, zookeepers, and farmers who care for their herds every day, even in the rain.
Which animal helper would you like to be? Draw yourself at work.
If you ever see an animal being hurt, or one with no food, water or shelter, tell a grown-up you trust right away: a parent, a teacher, a neighbor. You did the right thing by telling. The grown-up can call the people whose job is to help animals.
Practice saying: 'I saw an animal that needs help. Can you help me tell someone?'
In Black Beauty a horse tells the story of its life, with kind owners and unkind ones. In Charlotte's Web a clever spider saves her friend Wilbur the pig. Stories help us imagine how an animal might feel.
Read one story, then tell it again from the animal's side.
Lessons: The Petting Yard: Say the rulePreview The Petting Yard: Watch one henPreview The Nest: Watch one birdPreview Friends and Neighbors: Kind or truePreview
Drawer: Friendly Beasts: Kind or cruel?
Supplement: Black Beauty, free to read
Room quiz
6 questions, counted live. Pick an answer to see whether it is right and why. Nothing is saved.