Resources for Teachers and Classroom Presenters

Program of Red Rover

RedRover is an animal welfare group with programs in disaster animal rescue and help for pet owners in need. It also has a strong humane education activity through the RedRover Readers Program and the student newsletter Kind News. It provides educators the tools they need to teach children empathy skills. Through stories, children’s awareness of emotions and others’ perspectives expands, inspiring them to make the world a better place. “We help animals in crisis and protect and strengthen the bond between people and animals through emergency sheltering, disaster relief services, financial assistance and education.”

The innovative RedRover Readers curriculum enables educators to teach empathy while at the same time helping students make responsible decisions and become more aware of themselves and their communities. Teachers choose from pre-selected books and then facilitate discussions using our strategies, which also meet Common Core and social and emotional learning competencies. It is a unique program in the humane education community.

STEP 01 Read
Educators choose from a list of high-quality children’s picture books and present one to a group of children ages 5 to 11, asking thoughtful questions before, during and after the reading.

STEP 02 Discuss
Highly engaging, open-ended discussion techniques and questions help students see and share different perspectives and become aware of themselves within a relationship.

STEP 03 Activity
After the reading and discussion, students take part in projects that reinforce concepts — such as trust, respect and friendship — that they discussed during the story. Activities include science, art and role-play.

RedRover also publishes a quarterly Teacher’s Humane Education Newsletter and has an illustrated flyer of the books suggested for its Reader’s Program as well as an extensive list of children’s books with humane themes. It has a Training program to help teachers and volunteers learn the RedRover Readers method for humane education.