T-Shirt Design Contest: Artist Spotlight!
This spring the Alberta SPCA is holding a T-Shirt Design Contest for students across Alberta. Three entries will be selected and featured on Alberta SPCA t-shirts that will be made available to purchase. Proceeds from t-shirt sales will go towards helping animals across the province. The entries will be reviewed by three talented Alberta artists […]
Six Ways to Stay Engaged This Summer
With summer break right around the corner, we have a selection of podcasts, documentaries, courses, websites and more for you to explore during your much deserved time off. These recommendations touch on a variety of topics related to humane education including social-emotional learning, animal cognition and behaviour, empathy, Indigenous perspectives! Do you have a resource […]
Hares and Geese and Skunks, Oh My! Cohabiting with wildlife this spring
Spring is the time of year when grass turns green, flowers begin to bloom, and plants start to sprout. It is also a time of year when many wild animals in Alberta have their offspring. Cohabiting with wildlife is a reality for Albertans throughout the year, but spring presents some unique challenges for people and […]
Humane Education Across Alberta
There are a number of humane societies and SPCAs across Alberta that provide humane education programs and opportunities for teachers and students. Opportunities, such as field trips and classroom presentations, give students the chance to see the impact these organizations have in their communities, while learning from local experts. Read the brief descriptions below to […]
Teacher Highlight: Susan Guba
Alberta teacher and human education advocate: Susan Guba, a recently retired teacher, believes humane education plays a vital role in the classroom. Susan has been a long time champion of Alberta SPCA education programs, particularly the book lending program AnimalTales, which helps to build empathy and literacy. Throughout her 15-year teaching career, Susan has taught […]
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 […]
