Small & Exotic Pets Unit Study for Homeschool Families

In this installment of our Pets & Vets Unit Study, go beyond the traditional pets of dogs and cats to learn all about small and exotic pets–and the care they require– in this family-style Small Pets unit study.

This Small & Exotics Pets Unit Study was created for homeschooling families learning together and has coordinating lessons, activities, and ideas for learners of all ages and abilities.

This Exotic & Small Pets Unit Study is designed to be done together, as a family, with your children of all ages. However, recommendations for certain age groups are given.

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Small & Exotic Pets Unit Study: English Language Arts

Family Read Aloud

The Story of Dr. Dolittle by Hugh Lofting Read

Read Aloud Living Picture Books

What Pet to Get? by Emma Dodd

The Perfect Pet by Marjorie Palatini

Pet Show! by Erza Jack Keats

Independent Readers

Beginning Readers

What Pet Should I Get? by Dr. Seuss

Children Make Terrible Pets by Peter Brown

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss

Middle Elementary

Select one of the following:

Lily to the Rescue by W. Bruce Cameron (author of A Dog’s Purpose)

Stuart Little by E. B. White

Allergic by Megan W. Lloyd

Upper Elementary

Select one of these:

The Guinea Pig in the Garage: Animal Ark Series by Ben Baglio

The Tarantula in My Purse (and 172 Other Wild Pets True Stories) by Jean Craighead George (a Newberry winning author of Julie of the Wolves and many other children’s classics)

Middle-High School Level

Select one of these:

The Story of Dr. Dolittle by Hugh Lofting Read

All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot I highly recommend that parents preview the Herriot book first to make sure you are okay with your high schooler reading this book. There are some graphic veterinary medicine descriptions and a few curse words.

Phonemic Awareness

Your younger kids can use the Pets Beginning Sounds worksheet in the Free Resource Library to sound out the beginning sound of different pets.

Elementary kiddos should complete the Small Pets Rhyming Words worksheet based upon the classic nursery rhyme, I Have a Tiny Turtle

Poetry

Read the poem, Mother Doesn’t Want a Dog by Judith Viorst. Or the poem What Kind of Pet Do You Think I Should Get? by Jennifer Caldwell

Writing

Real-Life Writing

Use the Pets Real-life Writing worksheet for Preschool from the Free Resource Library for handwriting practice and vocabulary exercises.

Use the Pets Real-life Writing worksheet for Lower Elementary from the Free Resource Library. Have your students choose adjectives to describe their ideal pet.

Use the Pets Real-Life Writing worksheet for Upper Elementary from the Free Resource Library for your older students to first research three different possible pets and then list the pros and cons of each possible pet.

Use the Pets Real-Life Writing Worksheet Examples for Middle & High School from the Free Resource Library for your oldest students to use as examples as they create a flyer for a pet-sitting business. Then they will write a “30-second elevator speech” as to why someone should hire them to care for their pets. Their speech should contain the 4 elements listed here.

Grammar

Copywork and narration are real-life ways to work on grammar skills. Use the Pets Copywork and Narration pages from the Free Resource Library that are from The Story of Dr. Dolittle. 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.

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

Fables & Folk Tales

Listen to the classic Aesop’s fable of The Tortoise and the Hare retold and illustrated by Caldecott Medalist Jerry Pinkney or the version by Janet Stevens. (Scroll down to “MUSIC” for more Tortoise and the Hare)

Exotic & Small Pets Unit Study: STEAM

Science

Learn about the variety of different species you could choose as a pet. Here are some resources to help you learn more. Older students can explore how, in the wild, cold-blooded animals absorb heat from the sun during the day, so they need a heat source when kept in captivity.

Early Learners: Use the Pets Sorting worksheets from the Free Resource Library Your little ones can sort animals into 2 piles, by answering the question, “Would this make a good pet?”

You may also want to complete these Frogs Life Cycle printables from our sister site (includes resources and videos too) to learn more about pet frogs.

Lower Elementary: Read the book, Oh, the Pets You Can Get!: All About Our Animal Friends by Tish Rabe to learn about the different types of pets that people have. Use the Printable Pet Sorting Cards in the Free Resource Library to sort the pets into four categories: Birds/Mammals/Reptiles/Amphibians.

Also, talk to your kids about the differences between cold-blooded pets (fish and reptiles) and warm-blooded pets (birds and mammals). Here’s a quick and easy video that defines the differences.

Watch this video from SciShow about how cold-blooded animals survive cold weather in the wild. And your kids will probably enjoy this cute video from the Brevard Zoo about ectotherms (cold-blooded) and endotherms (warm-blooded).

Finally, have your student sort the Printable Pet Sorting Cards in the Free Resource Library that they used earlier to sort them into 2 piles, cold-blooded and warm-blooded.

Upper Elementary: Research to learn how the care of a reptile is different than the care of a mammal when both are kept in a pet habitat (for example, compare the care of a guinea pig to that of a bearded dragon). Then use the Differences in Pet Care Science Worksheet for Upper Elementary from the Free Resource Library to record the answers.

Here are a few videos to get you started on your research:

• Ways to keep your reptile warm
• What to look for in a cage
• What are Cold-Blooded Animals? (ectotherms)
• Warm-blooded and Cold-blooded Animals

Middle School & High School

Articles and Videos for researching Ectotherms and Endotherms:

• What’s the difference between warm and cold-blooded animals?
• Five Animals That Are Actually Cold-Blooded
• Introduction to Ectotherms
• What are Ectotherms?
• What are Endotherms?
• Thermoregulation in warm-blooded mammals

Next, watch this video about thermoregulation from Be Smart (emphasizes evolution) or this one from Mr Bozeman’s Science Thermoregulation.

Finally, complete the Ectotherms & their Environment Experiment to learn more about thermoregulation. This experiment is suitable for all ages, but I created the experiment worksheets to be completed by grades 5 and up.

Find the Ectotherms Experiment Pack for Middle & High School in the Whole Child Homeschool Store for complete instructions and printables. (Also included in the Small & Exotic Pets Unit Study “Just the Printables” Pack)

Technology

Middle & High School

Keeping a reptile comfortable and healthy in a habitat requires heat and light. Some species specifically need UVB light that they can get from sunlight in the wild. Research heating and lighting for herps to see how we use technology to keep our cold-blooded friends warm and toasty. Here are a couple of resources to use: UVB Lighting, UV Light, and Heat and Light.

Use the Technology to Keep Herps Healthy Worksheet in the Free Resource Library to record your answers. *herps=reptiles & amphibians

Advanced students can complete the experiment How Does Color Affect Heating by Absorption of Light? You may also want to read this (old, but still good info) article on the physics behind heat absorption vs. color.

Engineering

Early Learners

Use the Pets Matching worksheets with your little ones to match the pet with their accessories, their homes, and their food.

Next, have your kids select an animal from the list at the top of this page and let them design a habitat for the animal to live in using Duplos, magnetic blocks, or other building toys

Lower Elementary

Have your kids select an animal from the list at the top of this page and let them design a habitat for the animal to live in using graph paper (available in the Free Resource Library.

Upper Elementary

Choose one of these activities:

• Make a hedgehog obstacle course using these helpful hints.
• DIY a dog agility course for your dog.
• Or design (on paper) an animal habitat for either a small mammal or reptile using a re-purposed 5-shelf wooden bookcase using the Exotic Animals Habitat Design Graph Paper in the Free Resource Library.

Middle & High School

Design an obstacle course for a pet. Some pets that love to solve obstacle course challenges are hedgehogs, dogs, and squirrels. Get some inspiration from these videos from Mark Rober or Pepper the Hedgehog

Make your design to scale using the Exotic Animals Habitat Design Graph Paper in the Free Resource Library or build one IRL using re-purposed materials.

Math

Early Learners:

Read 1 Fish 2 Fish by Dr. Seuss. Let your kids count the number of fish in the book. Then go back through and count the other animals and compare to see which number is bigger.

Early Elementary:

At the end of What Pet Should I Get? by Dr. Seuss, the kids leave the pet store with a new pet, but it’s hidden in a basket. What pet do you think they got? Use the Small Pets Tally and Bar Graph Math Pages in the Free Resource Library to ask your friends and family what pet they would get and chart their answers.

Small & Exotic Pets Unit Study: Arts

Practical Arts

Select one of these 5 projects based on your children’s interests and abilities. Any of these will work for small mammal or reptilian pets such as hedgehogs, sugar gliders, and even iguanas.

• No-Sew Pet Tunnel
• Make a Running Wheel
• Toys for Small Pets (the first project uses a sewing machine, but most are no-sew)
• DIY Recipes for Bunny Treats (scroll down to see recipes)
• DIY Reptile Hides
• Beginner Sewing Level: Fleece Cage Liners (we used these for our hedgehog cage and they are 1000x better than loose bedding)
• Beginner Sewing Level: Fleece Snuggle Sack

If you don’t have any pets of your own, make a “No-Sew/No-Knot” or a Beginner Level Sewn blanket to donate to the local pet shelter.

Applied Arts

The book, What Pet Should I Get? by Dr. Seuss and the Seuss-inspired Oh, the Pets You Can Get! by Tish Rabe have a distinctive illustrative style. Dr. Seuss’ drawings were highly imaginative, especially his creatures. Let your child draw a pet in the style of Dr. Seuss with a black permanent marker and colored washable markers.

If you have a kid that struggles with open-ended creative activities, let them watch this instructional video that shows how to draw the fish from The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss and have them try to recreate the

Fine Arts

Look at the painting, Feeding the Rabbits, by Frederick Morgan. Morgan was a British romantic painter and a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. This painting is often called Alice in Wonderland and was painted around 1904. Discuss the painting with your kids. Find a copy of this painting in the Small & Exotic Pets Unit Study “Just the Printables” Pack.

Music

Take a step back in time (nearly 100 years!) and listen to this Silly Symphony about the race between Toby Tortoise and Max the Hare from Walt Disney Studios

Exotic & Small Pets Unit Study: History

Early Learners

Your younger kids can watch this video History of Pets from Scholastic News

Upper Elementary

Learn about the pets (and their names) with this video, All the Presidents’ Pets

Or just learn about Theodore Roosevelt’s pets (remember he started the National Parks System)

Find out where some of the most popular pets come from (and a bit of history about them too) in this video from Atlas Pro

Middle & High School

Watch this episode of Pets in History from Horrible Histories

Small Exotic Pets Motor & Sensory Skills

Fine Motor & Sensory Awareness

PlayTeachRepeat has a cute idea for learning to identify what your fingers feel with their What Pet Should I Get? inspired activity. Fun for all ages, not just little ones.

Gross Motor

Use the Pets Gross Motor Movement Cards in the Free Resource Library to move like various pets or read the book, Some Pets, by Angela DiTerlizzi and let your kids move like the various pets in the book. *Some Pets is also available for free on Open Library

Sing (and hop) to the classic nursery rhyme, Sleeping Bunnies.

Exotic & Small Pets Unit Study: Family Movies

Dr. Dolittle (1967) G

Dr. Dolittle (1998) PG-13

Extras for Your Small & Exotic Pets Unit Study

Axolotl 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.

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

Frogs Lapbook from our sister site, Homeschool Helper Online.

And also from Homeschool Helper Online, check out the Educational Reasons to say YES! when your kids ask to get a new pet

Take a field trip to a local herpetarium (many universities have them), a pet show, or a pet grooming center. My town has a quarterly reptile show that comes in from out of town, mainly to sell small and exotic pets, but it’s still fun to go and look around. Check Facebook Events to find one in your area.

Extra Picture Books that are worth hunting down from the library:

My Pet Wants a Pet by Eloise Broach

I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufman Orloff also on OpenLibrary

Pet Show! by Ezra Jack Keats

The Perfect Pet by Marjorie Palatini also on Open Library

Return to the Pets and Vets Unit Study Series Page

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And most importantly, pin this post so you can refer back to it during your Small Exotic Pets unit study.