Dogs & Cats Unit Study for Homeschool Families

This Dogs & Cats Unit Study was created for homeschooling families learning together and has lessons, activities, and ideas for learners of all ages and abilities.

In this installment of our Pets & Vets Unit Study, learn all about dogs & cats and the roles they play in our lives in this family-style unit study.

In this unit study focusing on our canine and feline friends, you and your children will:

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Dogs & Cats English Language Arts

Family Read Aloud

Cat Stories by James Herriot

Read Aloud Living Picture Books

James Herriot’s Treasury for Children: Warm and Joyful Tales by James Herriot All of the books in this treasury are available separately, although some are becoming more difficult to find. This week, read the following stories from the Treasury for Children:

• Moses the Kitten
• Only One Woof
• The Christmas Day Kitten
• The Market Square Dog
• Oscar, Cat-About-Town

That gives you one short picture book per day. The Treasury book is also on Amazon and Hoopla as an audiobook.

Independent Readers

Beginning Readers

Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion

The Digging-est Dog by Al Perkins

I’ll Teach my Dog 100 Words by Michael Frith

Middle Elementary

Henry & Mudge: The First Book by Cynthia Rylant

Five True Dog Stories by Margaret Davidson

Upper Elementary

Select one of these:

The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

Middle-High School Level

Lad: A Dog by Albert Payson Terhune

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot (Parents may want to preview this book first to be sure it is appropriate for their child as it has some graphic descriptions as a veterinarian)

Rhyming and Phonemic Awareness

Read the nursery rhyme, The Three Little Kittens. Either grab a copy of Paul Galdone’s version from your library or read it at All Nursery Rhymes. There’s a decent song version of it by Badanamu even if it does remind me a bit of Phoebe singing “Smelly Cat” on the TV show Friends LOL

Use the Dog & Cat Rhyming worksheet in the Free Resource Library and have your kids find the rhyming words in the original 1827 version of The Three Little Kittens. Then they can create as many rhyming words as they can with the -at and -og sounds.

Poetry

Read the poem, She sights a bird–she chuckles by Emily Dickinson

She sights a Bird—she chuckles—
She flattens—then she crawls—
She runs without the look of feet—
Her eyes increase to Balls—

Her Jaws stir—twitching—hungry—
Her Teeth can hardly stand—
She leaps, but Robin leaped the first—
Ah, Pussy, of the Sand,

The Hopes so juicy ripening—
You almost bather your Tongue—
When Bliss disclosed a hundred Toes—
And fled with every one—

Emily Dickinson

Writing

Creative Writing

The Dogs & Cats Real-life Writing printables are in the WCH Shop (and are also included in the Dogs & Cats Unit Study Curriculum Bundle). Help your kids learn “Adopt, don’t shop” and how animal shelters work. Your preschoolers, kindergartners, and even 1st graders can work on their pre-literacy and pre-writing skills while setting up a pretend pet rescue and adoption shelter with their stuffed animals & these Pet Shelter Adoption Printables.

Use the Dogs & Cats Real-life Writing worksheet for Lower Elementary from the Free Resource Library. Have your students create their own pet chore chart for caring for a cat or a dog.

Use the Dogs & Cats Persuasive Writing worksheet for Upper Elementary from the Free Resource Library for your older students to give reasons why they should have a dog or a cat.

Use the Dogs & Cats Persuasive Writing worksheet for Middle & High School from the Free Resource Library for your oldest students to write a persuasive essay using conjunctive adverbs and correlative conjunction pairs as to why they should be allowed to have a dog or a cat (examples of conjunctions included).

Grammar

Copywork and narration are real-life ways to work on grammar skills. Use the Dogs & Cats Copywork and Narration pages from the Free Resource Library. These Copywork and Narration pages come in 3 levels for Early Elementary, Upper Elementary, and Middle-High School.

First, dictate the passage to your student, saying a couple of words at a time. Don’t help them with capitalization, punctuation, or spelling yet.  After your child has written the sentence from dictation, let him see the original to check it with his work. Let her correct all of her mistakes, using the original so that she knows how it should look.

Then have him re-write the selection in his very best handwriting.

Not a member of the Whole Child Homeschool Tribe yet? Scroll up to the dark pink box above to sign up and get immediate access to the Free Resource Library.

Fables & Folk Tales

Watch this short video of Aesop’s fable, Belling the Cat, from Anon Animation Rhymes.

Read the Ukrainian folk tale of Sirko and the Wolf. Eric Kimmel has a good version of it that is OOP, but you may find a used one on Amazon or AbeBooks. If not, you can still read a copy here at Open Library.

Canine & Feline STEAM

Science

Learn all about the different breeds of cats and dogs and how genetics plays a part in creating the vastly different sizes and characteristics of our canine (dogs) and feline (cats) friends. These animal encyclopedias may be helpful:

The Complete Cat Breed Book by DK

The Complete Dog Breed Book by DK

Side note: both of the above books mention evolution in the first paragraph of the introduction but seem to focus on selective breeding throughout the rest of the books.

Early Learners: Read the book, If I Ran the Dog Show by Tish Rabe to learn about different breeds of dogs. Use the Printable Dog Breeds Cards to match up the breed with the correct dog. Or read the book, What Cat Is That?: All About Cats by Tish Rabe and use the Printable Cat Breeds Cards to match up the cat with the correct breed name. Or learn about both dogs and cats if your kids are equally interested in cats and dogs. Find the Printable Breed Cards for Dogs and for Cats in the Free Resource Library.

Upper Elementary: Learn about physics with cats! Watch this video from Life’s Biggest Questions to learn how they always land on their feet. Then use the Cat Physics Worksheet for Upper Elementary from the Free Resource Library to record the answers. The answers to the worksheet can be used to write a short paragraph to answer the question, “How do cats land on their feet?” if you want.

Middle and High School: Which of Newton’s Laws of Physics do cats seem to contradict when falling and landing on their feet? Watch the video above from Life’s Biggest Questions, plus these other 2 videos: Vox Darkroom and Smarter Every Day. Then use the Cat Physics Worksheet for Middle & High School from the Free Resource Library to record the answers. The answers to the worksheet can be used to write a short paragraph to answer the question, “How do cats land on their feet?”

BTW, if you don’t already subscribe to the Smarter Every Day channel, I highly recommend it for your tweens and teens! Destin always demonstrates concepts in a way that’s both interesting and easy to understand.

Technology

Did you know that technology is playing a larger and larger role in our pets’ lives? Many pet owners choose to have their pets microchipped in case our beloved pet becomes separated from us and can’t find their way back.

But now, that microchip can control an automatic pet door so that you don’t have to open and close the door every time they want to go out or come in. (Or in the case of cats, stand there with the door open while they decide what they want to do LOL) Plus, I don’t know if you’ve ever had a raccoon come in your cat door to eat the cat food, but I have and the microchip door prevents that!

A few other interesting technological innovations: athletic trackers, which are like a Fitbit for your dog, and self-cleaning litter boxes for your cat.

Have your child select one of these three devices to learn about and have them tell you 1.) what the “old-school” counterpart would be, 2.) if the device is really worth the cost, and 3.) are there any drawbacks to using that device.

Engineering

Early Learners

Let your little ones build a dog kennel or cat carrier with blocks or clothespins and craft sticks.

Upper Elementary

Design a pet carrier for a dog or cat to be used for airplane travel that will keep your pet safe, fed, watered, and warm while traveling in the cargo area of an airplane. Use the Dogs & Cats Engineering Design Graph Paper in the Free Resource Library.

Middle & High School

Have your student design either a cart or wheelchair for a dog without front legs. Use the Dogs & Cats Engineering Design Graph Paper in the Free Resource Library. Then let them watch this video about a dog with 3-D printed prosthetic legs.

Math

Early Learners: Read the book, Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag (a Newberry Honor book). One million has six zeros; write out one million. What is one less than one million (the number that comes before it)? How many cats does the old man find during the story?

Early Elementary: Read the book, Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag (a Newberry Honor book). How many zeroes do the numbers one billion and one trillion each have? What comes after trillions? Watch this video from PeekABoo Kids called How much is a million?

Upper Elementary: Write out (the words) million, billion, trillion,…up to decillion. Watch this video from AccountingPlus to learn the names of the “big” numbers.

Middle & High School: What is 10 to the power of 30? Hint: 10 to the power of 2 is 100 and 10 to the power of 3 is 1000. (Answer is Nonillion, a 10 with 30 zeros.) Read this article to find out what the world’s greatest number is (yes, technically numbers go to infinity, but this is the largest defined number).

Arts

Practical Arts

Select one of these 4 projects based on your children’s interests and abilities.

• make cookie treats for your dog (or the neighbor’s dog?)
• grow catnip for your cat
• make a no-sew pet bed using an old pillow
• make a snuffle toy for your dog

Applied Arts

Create a cute fiber arts project with this crochet cat pattern.

Create a portrait of your pet with these print-making instructions from The Kitchen Table Classroom.

Your younger kids can practice taking pictures of their pets with a camera. It’s not that easy to get a good picture of animals 🙂

Fine Arts

The surrealist artist, Salvador Dali’, met the prolific portrait photographer Phillipe Halsman (many of his photographs ended up on the cover of Life magazine) in 1941. They worked together for many years in collaboration. One of their works of art is Dali’ Atomicus. The untouched photo is below. The final product has the strings used to hang the chair and easel removed and one of Dali’s paintings on the easel. The project took 28 tries to get it right–which means those cats had to be thrown 28 times because they didn’t have photoshop back then! You can see the final version here.

Dogs & Cats History

Both dogs and cats have long histories entwined with human history. Cats have been admired and even worshipped in Ancient Egypt. Dogs have been bred and trained to help humankind with their work. Dogs can be incredibly loyal as well and there are many true instances where dogs were the hero of the story.

But do you know where the phrase, “dogs are man’s best friend” came from? It all started when a loyal black and tan hound dog was shot, and his owner filed a lawsuit against the person he believed to have killed his trusted companion. The case ended up at the Missouri Supreme Court. But one of the lawyer’s closing arguments was such a testament to the bond between a person and their dog, that not only did his speech make history, but is also the origin of the phrase “man’s best friend.” A major motion picture was even made about the story!

You can learn more about the story and trial of Old Drum with these resources:

• Nathan Hale’s The Trial of Old Drum
• Court proceedings and summary from the Missouri Secretary of State.
• What happened to the attorneys involved in the trial.
• Johnson County Missouri tells the story of Old Drum
• The Trial of Old Drum 2000 PG
• If you can’t get a hold of a copy of the movie, watch this clip from the closing arguments.

You can get a copy of George Graham Vest’s speech in the Free Resource Library. This speech has been used for decades as a speech to memorize and studied by debate and law students nationwide.

Motor & Sensory Skills

Fine Motor

Have your little ones use tongs to transfer pieces of dog or cat kibble from one bowl to another. They may also enjoy practicing their fine motor skills to complete this printable cat activity mat.

Elementary-age kids can string pony beads onto pipe cleaners to create “pet collars” for their stuffed animals.

Gross Motor

Use the Dogs & Cats Gross Motor Movement Cards in the Free Resource Library to move like cats and dogs.

Sensory Awareness

Print out a couple of copies of the Dog Emotions Matching cards to play a game naming the dog’s different emotions. The cards come in 2 sets, one with labels and one without. Grab yours from the Free Resource Library.

Family Movies

The Incredible Journey 1963 G Disney Available on Amazon Prime

Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey 1993 G Disney Available on most streaming services, including Disney+ and Amazon Prime

Where the Red Fern Grows 2008 G Streaming on VUDU, Peacock, Prime and many other services

Old Yeller 1957 Streaming on Prime, VUDU, Disney +, and other services.

Extras for Your Dogs & Cats Unit Study

Dogs notebooking and journaling pages in 3 levels from our sister site, Homeschool Helper Online.

Cats notebooking and journaling pages in 3 levels from our sister site, Homeschool Helper Online.

Or grab the updated Pets and Their Stories Pack in 3 levels from our sister site, Homeschool Helper Online.

Dogs Lapbook from our sister site, Homeschool Helper Online.

190 Dog breeds as puppies & adults video from Puppies Club

Cat breeds A to Z from Healthy Pets

Return to the Pets and Vets Unit Study Series Page

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