A Dog's World

Grade Levels: 3 - 5

Objectives

• Students will use vocabulary related to dogs and dog care.
• Students will follow directions to navigate around the website.
• Students will take notes as they read.
• Students will write an informational paragraph about dog care.

Materials

• A Dog's World worksheet
• How to Love Your Dog website (http://www.loveyourdog.com/)
  

Procedures

1. Introduce key vocabulary: consistent, grooming, housebreaking, obedience, training.
2. Have students work individually or with a partner to complete the A Dog's World worksheet as they explore How to Love Your Dog.
3. After exploring the site and taking notes, have each student write an informative paragraph about some aspect of dog care.
4. Encourage students to work with their partner to revise and edit their paragraphs.
5. Set aside time for the entire class to share their paragraphs and discuss what they have learned about dog care.

Assessment

• Use students' worksheet responses, informational paragraphs, and contributions to the class discussion to assess their ability to gather pertinent information from a website.
• Find a variety of assessment techniques to use with this lesson.

Extension Activities

• Choose from a large collection of cross-curricular activities for all grade levels.
• Encourage students to learn about how some of the presidents of the United States have loved their pets by visiting the White House Pets website (http://www.msnbc.com/onair/msnbc/TimeAndAgain/
  archive/whpets/default.asp). Have them tally the number of each type of pet that has lived in the White House.
• Have students go to the NetPets Kids website (http://www.chirpingbird.com/netpets/html/netkids/meetkids.html) and click on the links for the animal characters listed in the center of the screen. After students "meet" the pets, challenge them to write stories in which the main characters are one or more of the "netpets."

Standards Correlations

Standards for the English Language Arts

Students:

• participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
• use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes.
  

National Educational Technology Standards

Students:

• are proficient in the use of technology.
• practice responsible use of technology systems, information, and software.
• use technology to locate, evaluate, and collect information from a variety of sources.