Having animals incorporated into lesson plans would be a great way to create a hook for the students, especially if they are being introduced to a new unit. A few ideas I received from the internet include incorporating your pet into a science lesson.

For example, if I had a dog in my classroom I could have the students draw them or create a photo and have them label their anatomy. Or if I had a lizard or fish, have the students study their habitats, understand what habitats are, and maybe create a mini presentation using a board with their findings. Explain to the students about domesticated and non domesticated habitats. Also, studying what the animal eats and what they need to do to survive can be a great way to introduce food chains. This allows for students to make a scientific study and creates a major interest in what they’re doing because the project is on their classroom pet!

Note: This isn’t just limited to having a classroom pet, you can also incorporate an animal from a zoo (field trip) or even if the teacher has an animal at home (ie. introduces the animal via picture and name and then have the students go from there).

Another way to incorporate animals could be having students do a show and tell and bring in a photo of their pets or any animal of interest, then make a slideshow or presentation explaining their animal. This could be an introductory way to creative writing and have the students describe a story of their pet or use descriptive words (Teachhub, 2025).

Lastly, wrapping this up…

“animals can help to support and enhance learning in many different ways. As we know, learning is not always academic, and animals can provide an important social-emotional component. Incorporating animals into learning can provide academic opportunities for students in all subject areas. As Anthony Douglas Williams stated, “We have more to learn from animals than animals have to learn from us.” Animals are out there, we just need to decide how to best incorporate them into our classrooms to help promote student achievement and academic success!”

(Teachhub, 2021).

I personally think this a great way to create a hook for students, and could really have them be engaged and have fun with their learning/projects. I also like that if you don’t have a classroom pet, it could be super easy to take a photo of your pet from home (teacher) and have the students create a name, draw the animal, and then create a presentation based on this. I also really like how SEL can be incorporated into this, especially when talking about habitats and how students can learn about the impacts of humans.