Under development · The Museum of Friendly Beasts is open while new galleries are added
✿ Lambythe Museum of Friendly Beasts
For teachers and groups · Bradenton, FL

Gallery walks

Four walks, one for each grade band. Each stop names a card to stand in front of and a question to ask there. Lessons on newSchoolWorks.com pick up where the walk ends.

All bandsGrades K-2Grades 3-5Grades 6-8Grades 9-12
Grades 6-8 · 8 stops

Breeding, trade and invasion

Eight stops on how people reshaped animals and moved them around the world. About 45 minutes.

  1. Dogs: The breed and the kennel club
    Most breeds are under 150 years old. Is a breed a kind of animal or a kind of rule? Take a side.
  2. Cats: Cats on ships
    Trace the cat's route out of the Near East. What carried it, and why?
  3. Pet birds: Parrots and the wild-bird trade
    The 1992 law stopped most wild-bird imports. Who gained and who lost?
  4. Reptiles: Pets that escaped into Florida
    Pythons cut Everglades mammals sharply. Who should pay for the damage a released pet causes?
  5. Aquarium fish: Reef fish and the ocean trade
    How could a buyer tell whether a reef fish was caught with cyanide? Design a label.
  6. Bred, sold, kept, adopted, killed: Held, adopted, and killed
    Use the shelter numbers: what share of animals entering shelters were adopted in 2025? Show the arithmetic.
  7. Murderous cats: Billions of birds
    The estimate runs from 1.3 to 4.0 billion birds. Why is the range so wide? What would narrow it?
  8. Markets and delicacies: What a wet market is
    Most wet markets sell no wild animals. Why did the word become a headline in 2020?
Linked lessons

The Domesticated Animal: Two sources disagreePreviewThe Domesticated Animal: Now, todayPreviewEcosystems: A Web from the WallPreviewEcosystems: Crowded Cups and LimitsPreviewHeredity and Evolution: How Wide the VariationPreviewFur, Fish and Frontier: Weigh itPreviewNumbers, Time and Food: Money and Prices at the MarketPreview

Fiction to pair

The Call of the Wild (Jack London, 1903) · White Fang (Jack London, 1906) · The Jungle Book (Rudyard Kipling, 1894) · Where the Red Fern Grows (Wilson Rawls, 1961), at your library

Every room, as this band sees it
DogsCatsPet birdsReptilesAquarium fishBred, sold, kept, adopted, killedMurderous catsAnimals made to fightMarkets and delicaciesFugu and poisonous puffersThe economics of tunaLionfish in Florida
QR code 838567838567

Faint rooms are meant for older grades and stay closed in a younger student's view. More walks through the farm galleries: start in the lobby. Animals in fiction.