Classroom Guides
The Gryphon Press is proud to offer free, downloadable classroom guides for our titles, designed to support educators in bringing humane education into their curriculum. All guides are aligned with Common Core standards, and beginning with Jake and Ava, our newest guides will also align with the CASEL Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Standards.
Teachers consistently tell us how valuable these resources are for exploring topics like animal welfare, empathy, bullying, and core SEL competencies such as Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision-Making.
We’re grateful to our partners at HEART for creating some of our classroom guides.
What’s Social Emotional Learning?
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, establish and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships and make responsible decisions.
SEL is critical to developing competencies besides academic content knowledge that are necessary to succeed in college and in careers. Effective SEL programming begins in preschool and continues through high school. (U.S. Department of Education)
Grade Level: Kindergarten - 2 (Though older kids will appreciate this guide!)
Themes: Dogs, puppy mills, helping kids with cancer, teaching ethics to children
Includes: 11 Classroom Activities, Discussion Questions, Facts, and Resources.
Grade Level: 1-3
Objectives: Understanding the book, learning about our ecosystem and rainforest, exploring wildlife, birds, and the migration journey, and more.
Includes: Discussion Questions, Classroom Activities, Lesson Plans, Extracurriculars, Charts, Appendix, Picture References, and Flashcards.
Grade Level: 1-3
Objectives: Understanding the book, analyzing the effect of the environment on pets, interpreting common phrases, determining the motivations and emotions of characters, and more.
Includes: Discussion Questions, Classroom Activities, Lesson Plans, Extracurriculars, Charts, and Diagrams.
Grade Level: 3-5
Objectives: Understanding the book, improving reading and math skills, learning how to help animal shelters, exploring how microchips work, analyzing grammar and sentence structure, and more.
Includes: Discussion Questions, Book Reports, Charts, Worksheets, Bulletin Board Sample
Grade Level: 1-3
Objectives: Understanding the book, exploring the effect of the environment on animals, comparing two stories, identifying key elements, and more.
Includes: Discussion Questions, Classroom Activities, Lesson Plans, Extracurriculars, Charts, Worksheets.
Grade Level: 3-5
Objectives: Understanding the book, understanding grammar, sentence structure, and parts of speech, exploring the science behind intelligence, and more.
Includes: Discussion Questions, Classroom Activities, Lesson Plans, Extracurriculars, Charts, and Diagrams.
Grade Level: 3-5
Objectives: Exploring the importance of population control, analyzing language and grammar, learning animal life cycles, and more.
Includes: Discussion Questions, Book Reports, Charts, Worksheets, Diagrams, Word Choice, Assessments.
Grade Level: 3-6
Objectives: Understanding the book, leading discussions, learning about the 5 Freedoms, analyzing text, understanding limits of visual perception, learning about historical figures and nonfiction sources, and more.
Includes: Discussion Questions, Classroom Activities, Lesson Plans, Extracurriculars, Charts.
Grade Level: 3-4
Objectives: Understanding the book, understanding the perspectives of others, practicing communication and listening skills, learning about wildlife and ecosystems, and more.
Includes: Discussion Questions, Classroom Activities, Lesson Plans, Extracurriculars, Research Notes Form.
Grade Level: 3-5
Objectives: Understanding the book, applying writing skills, analyzing grammar, learning how to care for rabbits, and more.
Includes: Discussion Questions, Classroom Activities, Lesson Plans, Extracurriculars, Charts, Word Search, Worksheets.
Grade Level: 3
Objectives: Understanding the book, improving reading skills, learning about animal shelters and animal welfare, practicing research skills, and more.
Includes: Discussion Questions, Classroom Activities, Lesson Plans, and Extracurriculars.
Grade Level: 3-5
Objectives: Understanding the book, practicing and interpreting communication, analyzing language and grammar, and more.
Includes: Discussion Questions, Lesson Plans, Charts, Additional Resources.
We also have a downloadable 24-page Are You Ready for a Dog? Kit that guides parents and children through the decision process of whether their family is ready to include a dog. All are available in PDF format for easy downloading and printing. Check back soon for more classroom materials and other helpful information.
