Humane Education – Ohlone Humane Society

HUMANE EDUCATION

Welcome to the OHS Humane Education Program, a site for educational exchange and creativity. We promote learning for all ages in youth kindness, empathy, compassion, and protection of companion animals and wildlife.

OHS Humane Education welcomes story ideas from the public to include:

Topics of interest about animal welfare
Ways to help students to understand that caring for animals promotes environmental ethics and social justice
Promotion of equality and human dignity, harmonious relations, and the humane treatment of living creatures.

Sign up to receive Humane Education newsletters geared toward our younger community.

Check out our OHS e-Library! Explore educational e-books, read along stories, and humane education newsletters. You can also find past OHS Animal Tales.

Are you a teacher to K-6th graders in the Tri-City area? Apply for a classroom subscription to Kind News magazine for your students. Note: classroom subscriptions only, please.

KIND NEWS SUBSCRIPTIONS

Earn an OHS Humane Education award for your family or classroom! Explore different ways to earn an award, including creating your own habitat. (FOR ELEMENTARY STUDENTS AND CLASSROOMS)

We have many interesting animal care stories here at OHS. Check out our Animal Tales to learn more about some of the cases we’ve had thru the WRC and our Kitten Foster program.

Earn an OHS Humane Education award for your family or elementary school classroom!

Explore our different activities.

A HABITAT IN EVERY HOME & SCHOOL AWARD

OHS is All for the Animals…and their habitats, too! We live in a community estimated to regularly host over 500 species of fish, birds, invertebrates, mammals and amphibians. In addition, thousands of birds, butterflies, and marine animals pass through the area during migration. To support their migration and our local ecosystems, OHS is encouraging animal lovers to establish home or elementary school gardens to provide more native plant growth for our environment, water and nutrients for traveling birds, and flowering plants for our pollinating insects and animals.

In recognition of your efforts to help conserve our local environment, OHS is offering families an opportunity to share with us your habitat at home or school and chance to earn an award suitable for printing. When completed, you will have a location to help the animals and plants survive and multiply. Our goal is a habitat in every home and elementary school!

Ready to start? It’s easy!

Create or examine your current habitat. You must have at least two of the required parts to become certified. Please see A Habitat in Every Home and School Award Instructions booklet to get started.
When your habitat is ready to share, fill out this form to describe what you have done.
Finally, draw your new habitat and/or submit photos or pictures of it, showing off the plants, feeders and water or shelter. You can be in your photo too! Send photos to humane_education@ohlonehumanesociety.org

What happens next?

OHS Humane Education will review your submission and make sure the application and photos or drawings are together.
When reviewed, you will be sent your award.
You will have the satisfaction of knowing OHS and others are aware you are helping our local animals and plants and preserving your community’s ecosystem. All for the Animals!

THE GREAT SCHOOYARD BIRD COUNT CLASSROOM PARTICIPATION AWARD

OHS enjoys bringing awareness to the international Great Backyard Bird Count held in February each year to support the week the world comes together for the love of birds. To make the count more meaningful for our students, we invite our local teachers and students to participate in The Great Schoolyard Bird Count. OHS asks teachers to encourage their students to count birds for 5-15 minutes, report their numbers, and then send in their counts and pictures the students drew of a bird they saw and might be able to identify.

Classrooms are sent an award of participation for excellence in bird counting & drawing. Hope to see you in February!

The Great Schoolyard Bird Count

1. Take students outside to the schoolyard. Ask them to count birds they see for 5-15 minutes as appropriate for your grade level. If appropriate, students can predict how many and what types of birds they might see during the observation period.

2. Return to the classroom and have the students report their numbers to you.

3. Ask students to draw a picture of a bird they saw and might be able to identify, eg, Sea Gull, Robin, Crow, Sparrow, Hummingbird, unknown)

4. Send photos of drawings and results to us at humane_education@ohlonehumanesociety.org and we will post on the website.

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN HUMANE EDUCATION? CONTACT US!

KIND NEWS

OHS is pleased to provide for over 20 years:

Free subscriptions for our Tri-City K-6 teachers to Kind News magazine, an 8-page publication produced by Red Rover, a national animal welfare nonprofit organization. OHS pays the total cost of the subscriptions as a learning tool for students and their families to learn about all animals and their care. OHS does not receive any compensation from the publisher.
A teacher’s edition plus up to 28 student copies of Kind News are delivered to your classroom 5 times/year with absorbing articles, colorful illustrations and activities to engage young readers.
Explore recent sample issues below and on Red Rover’s website, including Kind News Jr. (grades K-2), Kind News(grades 3-6), and the Kind News Teacher Guide.

Spread the word! Sign up for a free classroom subscription for the school term of 2023-24! After 5/31/23, you are welcome to apply, but may not receive all 5 issues next year.

“I LOVE the articles about animals helping people & vice-versa. Thank you for the information! Kind News is very important to us!!“

“Kind News does a wonderful job at teaching the students to appreciate all creatures great and small. The articles were in kid friendly language. My students and I love Kind News!!”

Kind News Jr. (K-2)

Kind News (3-6)

Teacher’s Guide

NUMBER OF KIND NEWS SUBSCRIPTIONS PROVIDED BY OHS TO TRI-CITY K-6 STUDENTS

2828

STUDENTS IN 2023-24

3836

STUDENTS IN 2022-23

1792

STUDENTS IN 2021-22

SIGN UP FOR KIND NEWS

(Please note: Classroom subscriptions only)

Animal Tales The Goose Who Got Loose p1

Animal Tales The Goose Who Got Loose p2

MORE ANIMAL TALES