Practising Empathy Using Picture Books
Empathy is a critical life skill that helps us to share, understand and care about the emotions of others. It is also a precursor for compassion – through understanding the perspective and feelings of others, we are more likely to take action to help. Empathy is the theme for this school year, and the seventh […]
Humane Education Professional Development Opportunities
As summer approaches and another school year winds down, we wanted to not only congratulate teachers for making it through this challenging year, but also thank them for all they did to help students grow, learn and adapt over these past nine months. Summer is a time for teachers to take a much needed break, […]
The Benefits of Humane Education
Humane education is an approach to teaching that fosters empathy and compassions towards animals, people, and the environment. When we teach students to be kind, to show compassion and to be respectful to animals, not only does it have a positive impact on animals, it can improve society as a whole. Students can apply these […]
Record-Breaking Kindness Challenge!
This past December, a record breaking, thirty-eight Alberta classes committed to participating in the Kindness Challenge. Students from kindergarten to grade 7 spread acts of kindness towards self, others, animals, and the environment for the first half of December. Each day students completed a different activity by following the Kindness Challenge Calendar. Some of the […]
Meet Gloria Ho: The Artist Behind the Posters
For the past six years, the Alberta SPCA has been fortunate to collaborate with local artist, Gloria Ho, in creating our character education classroom poster series. Each year Gloria paints animals that help convey the annual theme. Over the years, thousands of these posters have made their way to Alberta classrooms – learn more about […]
Using Books to Create a Caring Classroom
This school year started like no other. As we transition through these challenging times, it is important for everyone to show a little more compassion and empathy towards others. It is important for us, as teachers, to begin fostering these qualities in students at the beginning of the school year to help establish a healthy […]
Students Making a Difference through ‘Class Action’
Service learning projects are a great way to address curricular outcomes while providing students the opportunity to leave a positive and lasting impact on the community. The Alberta SPCA’s ‘Class Action’ projects to help animals, people or the environment provide an opportunity to engage your students in service learning. One of the great things about […]
Fostering Curiosity in the Classroom
Children are naturally curious. We know this from the numerous questions they ask each day. However, for some reason it seems as children get older the number of questions asked become fewer. As educators we want to encourage students to continue asking questions and to stay curious and engaged in learning, but how? We’ve all […]
After the War: Animals Helping Veterans
Animals had, and continue to have an important role to play in war. In last year’s Remembrance Day blog we discussed the role animals played in The First World War. This year we are looking at service dogs, and the important role they have in helping veterans who are dealing with post traumatic stress disorder […]
Volunteer Spotlight – April 2019
The Alberta SPCA Education Department is fortunate to have two wonderful volunteers that help us connect teachers to humane education resources they can use in their classroom. Whether it is coming into the office once a week, or helping us at special events, our volunteers are an integral part of our department being able to […]
