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RSPCA create new educational games to help children be kind to animals
The RSPCA is educating children in how to spot dangers to wildlife, how to create the perfect habitat for an animal and where to find animals, with its new online games.
The charity hopes the games, which are part of the wider educational work it does with young people, provide a fun and interactive way for primary school children to understand how the way they act can affect the wildlife around them.
One of the games ‘A day out with the Careless family’ follows the story of a family day out and encourages children to spot all the potential dangers to wildlife, such as litter, released balloons, fly tipping, traffic and construction work. The children can click on each danger to find out more information about why it poses a risk and also how we can help reduce this risk.
In another game ‘Who lives where’ children create an advert for a perfect habitat for either a bird, mouse or frog. They drag and drop different elements to make sure their chosen animals needs are met. It encourages children to think about the different needs of animals and what might make the perfect home. They can then print their design to share with their class.
‘Animals in our school grounds’ provides a floorplan of a typical school and its grounds and encourage the children to explore where animals might make their home. It gives the children the chance to think about the different wildlife that lives in close proximity to us and how we can protect them and their habitats.
Head of education at the RSPCA David Allen said: “We are really pleased with these fun interactive games which will engage children with the issues around animal welfare.
“The ‘P’ in RSPCA stands for prevention and that is what we are aiming to do by teaching children how to look after animals at a young age.
“We would love to go further and to see animal welfare feature on the school curriculum, we have resources available on our website to help teachers lesson plan around this.”
All of these resources are included in the ‘Animals and Us’ section of the website. This provides a range of interactive games, quizzes and videos to help learning for children in key stage 1 and 2.