The Animal “Clean”dom

Pre-K through Grade 2

Grade 3 through Grade 6

Back to Educator Main Page

Grade Levels Pre-K through Grade 2

Estimated Teaching Time 30 to 35 minutes

Interdisciplinary Connections

• Listening to a story (Language Arts)
• Researching the cleanliness habits of other animal species (Language Arts, Social Science, Science)
• Illustrating findings in a captioned picture (Language Arts, Art)

Objective

Children will learn that most animals have their own cleanliness habits.

What Children Do

Children will listen to the book No More Baths by Brock Cole before discussing the various ways animals stay clean. They will then create a captioned picture illustrating their findings.

Materials Required

• No More Baths by Brock Cole (1980, ISBN: 0-385-14714-7 Trade paperback edition, 0-385-14715-5 Prebound)
• Books, encyclopedia, magazines or posters about animals
• Art paper
• Crayons, colored pencils or markers

Advanced Preparation

• If desired, preselect animals to research.
• Prepare an example of how an animal keeps itself clean.

Suggested Sequence

1. Gather class in a “reading aloud” spot.
2. Discuss how they feel about taking a bath or shower. Have they ever had to be nagged to wash? How did that make them feel?
3. Introduce Jessie on the dedication page of No More Baths. Discuss what type of girl they think she is.
4. Ask the children to listen for ways to keep clean as you read.
5. After reading the story, review the animals’ cleanliness habits:
   • Chicken — frazzling
   • Cat — licking
   • Pig — wallowing in the mud
6. Ask the class if they believe all animals have ways of keeping clean. Ask for a few examples. Share the example you prepared with the children.
7. Assign/choose animals to research.
8. After research and discussion are complete, provide paper and illustration materials.
9. Remind the children to write a caption below their illustration which describes what steps the animal takes to maintain cleanliness.

Check for Understanding

Ask the children to present their findings to the class.

Extensions

• The illustrations may be made into a picture book to share with other classes.
• Children may want to present their book to the other classes in order to be “Ambassadors of Good Health.”
• A bulletin board may be created to publicly display the findings.
• Discuss which would be their favorite method of cleanliness.
• Act out No More Baths, substituting the animals which were researched. This, too, might be used as a presentation to other classes.

Words to Share

• Hygiene