Grade 3 – Grade 4
Below are discussion questions and activities to highlight the importance of being active and how activity makes us – and our pets – feel! Both the discussion questions and activities are part of the ‘Active Together’ character education theme for the 2023-2024 school year! To see other character building themes, click here!
Discussion Questions:
- What does being active mean? Moving our bodies and engaging our minds
- What are some ways you are active (Think of both physical activities where you move your body, and activities that use your mind)? Exercise, running, skating, walking, dancing, reading a book, doing a puzzle, learning a new skill, etc.
- Why is it important to be physically active (moving our bodies)? Why is it important to be mentally active (using our minds)?
- How does being active make you feel?
- What do you think the term “active together” means? What do you notice about the picture in the poster?
- What are some ways that you can help your pet stay physically active? What are some ways that you can help your pet’s mind stay active?
- Why is it important that you make sure your pet stays physically active? Why is it important to make sure your pet has things to do?
- How do you think pets feel when they are active?
Activities:
1. Normal Behaviours
We have normal behaviours that we carry out that keep us active! It’s important that we have the time and space to be active as it’s important for our well-being. Ask students:
- What are some normal behaviours/activities of kids your age? (Think of activities where you move your body, and activities that engage your mind).
- How does doing these behaviours/activities make you feel?
- How do you think you might feel if you couldn’t do any of these behaviours?
Animals also have normal behaviours that they need to carry out to help them to feel good. Many of these behaviours are instinctual – which means they don’t need to be taught by their parents, they are born wanting to express them. Ensuring animals have opportunities to express their normal behaviour is an important part of meeting an animal’s needs.
As a class, watch the Five Needs of Animals – Behaviour video (4:30).
Post Video Discussion Questions:
- What are some normal behaviours of pets that you know? (Think of behaviours where they move their bodies and activities that engage their minds)
- How are your normal behaviours similar to or different from an animal’s normal behaviours?
- Enrichment is anything that helps animals express their normal behaviour (such as toys, games, and other animals to socialize with). What are some examples of enrichment that help kids your age express their natural behaviours? Friends: Playing with friends at recess, Book: for reading, Bike: for riding, games: for playing, etc.
- Why is it important for you to express your normal behaviours? It helps you feel good, burns off energy, relieves boredom, helps you relax, help you to feel happy, allows you to be you!, etc.
- Why is it important for animals to be able to express their natural behaviours? Just like people, animals need the opportunity to express their natural behaviour to feel positive emotions such as contentment, enjoyment, etc. Animals that do not have an opportunity to express their natural behaviour might experience negative emotions such as boredom, anxiety, depression and frustration.
Building on the post video discussion, work through the Normal Behaviours slides as a class. Have students identify the animal on each slide, and then answer the following questions for each animal.
- What are some normal behaviours of this animal?
- What can we do to help the animal express their normal behaviour?
Remind students that being providing the opportunity for animals to express their natural behaviour is one way we stay active with our pets. Sometimes this means providing our pets with enrichment so that their minds are active!
2. Animal Companion
Read aloud Rescue and Jessica: A Life-Changing Friendship by Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes. Alternatively, you can share the read aloud Rescue and Jessica: a Life-Changing Friendship by Jessica Kensky, Mr. Wil’s Read Alouds video (9:45). While listening to the story, encourage students to think about the ways that Rescue and Jessica stay active together. After the story, ask the students the following discussion questions:
- How does Rescue help Jessica? Rescue brings Jessica things she needs, barks when she needs help, holds her steady, etc.
- How does Jessica help Rescue? Jessica gives Rescue lots of playtime and lets him rest when she doesn’t need him.
- What kinds of activities do Rescue and Jessica do together? Chores, play, snuggle, etc.
- How does this book relate to the “Active Together” poster? Rescue and Jessica both help each other to stay active. Rescue helps Jessica move around and get outside, while Jessica makes sure Rescue gets lots of exercise and play time.
As a class, watch the 2017 ASPCA Dog of the Year: Rescue video (3:48). In the video the author of the book, Jessica Kensky, talks about Rescue and how he helps her. Jessica mentions that by taking care of Rescue’s needs, she was able to get outside and be active. While it might have been easier for her to stay in bed or be upset about her situation, Rescue provided her with something else to focus on. As a class, or in small groups, have students reflect on the following discussion questions.
Post Video Discussion Questions:
- How did keeping Rescue healthy and active affect Jessica’s well-being?
- What are some challenges that Jessica faced when trying to stay active? How did she overcome these challenges?
- Should everyone do the same types of physical activity? Why or why not?
- How do you know what types of physical activity are right for you?
Throughout the book, Jessica faces challenges that affect her ability to stay active. These challenges also have an impact on her feelings/mood and her perspective on her situation. Jessica leans on Rescue and her family to help her persevere through these challenges.
Have students write a paragraph using the following prompt: Imagine you are facing a challenge in your life (i.e., not being able to play your favourite sport anymore, having a hard time understanding a math concept, having a difficult time training your new puppy, etc.) Have students use the following reflecting questions to help write their paragraph.
- How do you think this challenge will affect you?
- What are some strategies that you can use to overcome this challenge?
- What supports are there in your life that you can use to help you get through this challenge?
Have students edit their writing for spelling, punctuation, and grammar. If students feel comfortable have students share their paragraph with a partner.
3. Activity Tracking
Setting goals can help us stay active which benefits our overall health. Goals that we set ourselves can help motivate us to be active on those days we don’t feel like it or when we are busy. Ask students the following discussion questions:
- What is a goal?
- How can setting goals keep us motivated?
- Are there any other factors that motivate you to be active?
Using the Activity Tracker activity sheet, have students create a goal around moving their bodies and staying active for one week. Their goal should be the amount of time that they want to spend being active throughout the week.
Remind students that everyone’s goal will be different and there are no right or wrong ways to be active. Remind students that scheduling activities that they enjoy doing will make the goal easier to achieve.
Over the week, have students record their activity and the amount of time they spend doing the activity. Remind students to record how they feel after each activity. Encourage students who have a pet to include their pet in some of the activities!
Once the week is over, have students create a bar or dot plot graph to show how many minutes they were active for each day. Then have students reflect on the following reflection questions:
- Were you able to meet your goal? Why or why not?
- Did you face any challenges when trying to meet your goal?
- Did creating the schedule help you to make time and follow through with being active?
- How did being active throughout the week make you feel?
Extension: Have students do this activity again at various times throughout the year, engaging in conversations about how different factors (such as seasons) can affect our levels of physical activity. Some discussion questions could include:
- How does being active change during the seasons? Why types of physical activity might you do in the winter versus the summer?
- Are there any other factors that might affect your physical activity throughout the year? (i.e., Holidays like Christmas or Spring Break, sport seasons, etc.)
As students do this activity multiple times throughout the year, have them update their chart/graph to show their time spent being active throughout the year.
Curriculum Connections
ELAL
- Organizing Idea: Ideas and information can be articulated accurately and imaginatively through the use of writing processes and an understanding of the author’s craft.
- Guiding Question: How can writing craft combined with skills and processes contribute to written expression?
- Learning Outcome: Students investigate writing and research processes that support informed written expression.
- Skills and Procedures:
- Create written texts for a variety of audiences and purposes.
- Edit writing for spelling, punctuation, and grammar.
- Select a variety of texts to be shared according to their purpose.
- Skills and Procedures:
- Learning Outcome: Students investigate writing and research processes that support informed written expression.
- Guiding Question: How can writing craft combined with skills and processes contribute to written expression?
Physical Education and Wellness
- Organizing Idea: Active Living: Developing physical literacy through movement and active living supports well-being across a lifespan.
- Guiding Question: How can a variety of physical activities be incorporated into an active lifestyle?
- Learning Outcome: Students examine how participation in a variety of challenging physical activities fosters well-being.
- Skills and Procedures:
- Experience and reflect on how well-being is supported through a variety of physical activities.
- Modify plans for physical activity in response to changing seasons and diverse environments.
- Skills and Procedures:
- Learning Outcome: Students examine how participation in a variety of challenging physical activities fosters well-being.
- Guiding Question: How can a variety of physical activities be incorporated into an active lifestyle?
- Organizing Idea: Character Development: Exploration of life opportunities and virtues develops resilience and personal talents and promotes lifelong learning.
- Guiding Question: How are roles connected to character development?
- Learning Outcome: Students analyze different roles within varied contexts and examine ow roles can support the development of talents, virtues, and resilience,
- Skills and Procedures:
- Identify emotions in a variety of situations.
- Skills and Procedures:
- Learning Outcome: Students analyze different roles within varied contexts and examine ow roles can support the development of talents, virtues, and resilience,
- Guiding Question: How are roles connected to character development?
Mathematics
- Organizing Idea: Statistics: The science of collecting, analyzing, visualizing, and interpreting data can inform understanding and decision making.
- Guiding Question: How can representation support communication?
- Learning Outcome: Students interpret and explain representations of data.
- Skills and Procedures:
- Collect data using digital or non-digital tools and resources.
- Represent first-hand and second-hand data in a dot plot or bar graph with one-to-one correspondence.
- Skills and Procedures:
- Learning Outcome: Students interpret and explain representations of data.
- Guiding Question: How can representation support communication?
ELAL
- Organization Idea: Writing: Ideas and information can be articulated accurately and imaginatively through the use of writing processes and an understanding of the author’s craft.
- Guiding Questions: How can development of writing processes and expression support effective communication?
- Learning Outcome: Students construct and organize text to share perspectives and develop creative expression.
- Skills and Procedures:
- Create written texts for a variety of audiences and purposes.
- Edit writing for spelling, punctuation, and grammar.
- Skills and Procedures:
- Learning Outcome: Students construct and organize text to share perspectives and develop creative expression.
- Guiding Questions: How can development of writing processes and expression support effective communication?
Physical Education and Wellness
- Organizing Idea: Active Living: Developing physical literacy through movement and active living supports well-being across a lifespan.
- Guiding Question: In what ways can a variety of physical activities contribute to active living?
- Learning Outcome: Students examine how choices in physical activities affects active living.
- Skills and Procedures:
- Investigate how the choice of physical activity may change over time in relation to various factors.
- Engage in physical activities that are enjoyable or rewarding.
- Skills and Procedures:
- Learning Outcome: Students examine how choices in physical activities affects active living.
- Guiding Question: In what ways can a variety of physical activities contribute to active living?
Mathematics
- Organizing Idea: Statistics: The science of collecting, analyzing, visualizing, and interpreting data can inform understanding and decision making.
- Guiding Question: In what ways can communication be shaped by the choice of representation?
- Learning Outcome: Students evaluate the use of scale in graphical representations of data.
- Skills and Procedures:
- Compare different graphs of the same data.
- Skills and Procedures:
- Learning Outcome: Students evaluate the use of scale in graphical representations of data.
- Guiding Question: In what ways can communication be shaped by the choice of representation?
