People and Animals (Age; 7-11 KS2)

Year 3 and up

Key ideas

To what extent are animals similar to people? Do they have rights? Should they be treated the same or different? Are pets people?

Stimulus

Place two boards in the centre of the circle.  One with ‘a person and one with ‘an animal on it. Ask children to point at people and then point at animals to check they understand and are paying attention. No offer them a range of scenarios which they have to respond to by pointing:

Point at the one

• You talk to.
• You invite into your house
• You go for walks with
• You give presents to
• You punish if they have done something wrong
• You can arrest
• You can own
• You feed
• You set free
• You can look after
• You can kill

Look for controversy (when they disagree with each other) and ask them to explain a bit for each one. There may be some interesting Emergent Questions that arise (see below)

Questions

• Should animals and people be treated the same?
• If animal doesn’t mind how you treat them, can you treat them how you want?
• Does an animal have the same rights as a person?
• Are pets more like people or animals?
• Are children like pets or people?
• Is having pets the same as having slaves?

Emergent Questions;

• Can animals talk?
• Is ‘Woof, woof!’ a language?
• If animals could speak our language should we send them to school?
• Should animals live in the house?
• Should you put leads on animals?
• Should you put leads on people?
• If we give present to animals should animals give us presents?
• Can you own people?

Download People and Animals (Age; 7-11 KS2)