Full Resource - City of Edmonton

Set the Standards
How to use the interactive whiteboard app
with this activity
Extend
Ask students to create a plan for a pet
purchase, using the Neighbours Pet
Centre as a starting point, as well as
additional sources of information such
as websites and pet store flyers. Have
students calculate expenses and time and
present their information in a poster
or pamphlet. Encourage students to
describe how they would be responsible
pet owners.
Ask students to make connections
between responsible pet ownership
and terms and ideas they used in their
concept webs, including pet licensing,
use of off leash parks for exercise and
responsible training. Ask students to
consider how a pet can be a “good
neighbour.”
The Pets in the City interactive whiteboard app, launched
at www.edmonton.ca/makeabettercity, includes whole class
activities that can reinforce the concepts of individual
responsibility and informed decision-making, using the process
of pet adoption as an example. Neighbours Pet Centre provides
students with the opportunity to weigh options, costs and
responsibilities involved in adopting a rescue pet or buying a pet.
Students select from four different animals and consider initial
pet fees and expenses, the cost of pet supplies and the time
investment that a pet requires.
Work through the process of adopting or buying a pet with
students. Keep track of the different types of costs involved,
using a graphic organizer such as a Quad T-Chart (p. 184). Ask
students to discuss what they have learned from Neighbours Pet
Centre, using questions such as the following:
• What were the differences in the cost of the four animals in
the pet centre Why do you think these differences exist
• What are the advantages of adopting a pet compared to
buying one from a responsible breeder or pet centre
• What did you learn about making responsible choices when
deciding to adopt or buy a pet
• How do you think the choices you make about pet ownership
could affect others in your neighbourhood or the city
Focus on Mathematics
Work with students to track and compare their pet adoption or
purchase decisions on a graph or table:
• Discuss and establish the format for a graph or table that will
help them compare two, three or four of the pet choices in
Neighbours Pet Centre.
• As pet expenses are found for each animal, have students
record each expense in columns and tabulate totals. Compare
these totals to those provided in the final feedback message.
• Use the graph or table to make detailed comparisons between
two, three or all four pets.
• Focus on one of the four expense and time categories in the
Neighbours Pet Centre activity and compare it across each
different animal.
• Provide time for students to calculate responses to the
problems posed in the final feedback message for each pet.
Compare responses for the four different animals.
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Make A Better City