Cats, Dogs, and Classroom Pets: Science in Art, Song, and Play.

Studying pets fosters children's natural curiosity about the world around them and encourages them to use their five senses. This cross-curricular guide provides opportunities for children to build concepts by introducing them to a variety of household pets beginning with cats and dogs, and including mice, gerbils, hamsters, rabbits, guinea pigs, fish, and birds. Each animal study includes some or all of the following: art, creative drama, music and dancing, literature, research, creative writing, cooking, and mathematics. Science skills emphasized include observing, classifying, creating models, manipulating materials, using numbers, asking questions, finding information, making predictions, designing investigations, communicating or recording information, drawing conclusions, and applying knowledge. Each chapter starts with a science goal followed by ideas on how to plan for the activities, lists of visual aids, and related words for discussion. (LZ)