Participants “become” a being or part of nature and share the lives, concerns, hopes, and wisdom of their being in a Council.
Grades: Recommended for grades 4 and up
Time: 1-2 hours
animal rights issues
How’d That Get on My Plate?
This activity encourages participants to explore how sample ingredients in our food might affect the environment, people, and animals, and what alternatives might exist that could do more good and less harm.
Recommended grades: 6 and up
Time: 45 minutes to several days
Alien in the Ethical Universe
Participants receive a visit from a traveling alien on a fact-finding mission to learn how beings treat other beings on Earth.
Recommended grades: 4 and up
Time: 20-45 minutes
The Wonder Box
he Wonder Box is used to hold a collection of various natural, found objects (shells, leaves, feathers, rocks, twigs, deceased insects, etc.). Students can interact with the objects, inspecting them, using their five senses, drawing/sketching, painting, a picture of the object(s), writing a poem, listing describing words, creating a story, etc.
Recommended grades: PreK-5
Time: 20 minutes and then ongoing
Mouse vs. Zucchini
This activity encourages students to discover and think about the perspectives of other people and of nonhuman animals using a brief video featuring a mouse and a zucchini on a kitchen counter.
Recommended grades: K-5
Time: 30 minutes
Not Enough Homes: Adding Up the Pet Overpopulation Problem
This activity helps young students hone their basic math skills while learning about pet overpopulation.
Recommended grades: K-5
Time: 60 minutes
What Will You Say?
At the end of your very long life, a child asks you what you did to help make the world so much better. Guide students through this visualization to help them get in touch with their power to make positive change.
Recommended grades: 6 and up
Time: 10-20 minutes
I Think Therefore I Act
Based on the Privilege Walk, this activity encourages students/participants to develop an awareness of the kinds of choices we make every day that impact other people, nonhuman animals, and the environment.
Recommended Grades: 9 and up
Time: A few class periods
Be a Force for Good for Ukraine
I am a humane educator, someone who teaches about the cruelties, destruction, and injustices we perpetrate on other humans, animals, and the environment and who helps people cultivate compassion and integrity and become solutionaries able and motivated to build humane, healthy, and just societal systems. It is in this capacity – rather than as an expert in geopolitics or…
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Integrating Humane Education into the High School Classroom: An Interview with Mike Farley, M.Ed.
Introduction: Mike Farley has been teaching middle and high school Geography and Environmental Studies for 20 years in the Toronto District School Board and currently at University of Toronto Schools. Over the past decade he has explored animal protection with his students, including running virtual field trips to animal sanctuaries during the pandemic. Mike is a frequent presenter at conferences…
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