Humane education – building connections in the classroom

This May, RedRover’s Program Coordinator II Minhhan Lam had the opportunity to read to a group of first-graders in person at Peter Burnett Elementary in Sacramento, California, for the first time since the pandemic hit. Almost forgetting how much she missed the youthful energy, genuine curiosity, awe, and wonder that the children have for stories about animals, the kids were so excited to hear her read that her nerves quickly dissipated.

For her second visit to Ms. Choy’s first-grade class, Minhhan read Alya and the Three Cats written by Amina Hachimi Alaoui, one of the more recent additions to our RedRover Readers Program books. The kids were captivated by the story and the illustrations, and they stayed engaged with the discussion questions throughout the reading.

“It was so rewarding to see the kids engaged and excited about reading. I left the classroom feeling inspired and hopeful about the future of literacy, and about how these kids will hopefully grow to build better connections with others, both human and animal alike.”
– Minhhan Lam, Program Coordinator II

After each reading, they reflected on what they learned from the book, and then did a post-discussion activity. The kids had many questions about the journey that both the human characters in the story as well as the animals went through, and they were eager to share their own thoughts and experiences of taking care of pets and observing the animals in their lives.