Has Carly the “cow” visited your school yet? If so, you and your students know all about the sophisticated emotional lives of cows and how humans’ consumption of dairy affects them. (If not, send us an e-mail at [email protected] to find out when Carly will be in your neighborhood.)
Carly’s tale is so captivating because it’s a rescue story. Stories of people helping animals are all over the internet, and sharing them with your students is an excellent way to encourage kindness both in and out of the classroom. Because most children naturally feel compassion for animals, sharing rescue stories is a great way to engage and motivate different types of learners and encourage them to take action to help end animal abuse.
Each TeachKind Rescue Stories reading comprehension worksheet tells a different animal’s tale of transformation and features key vocabulary words and questions in order to encourage literal, inferential, and evaluative thinking. These worksheets were used in a study that found that students who read passages about having compassion for animals performed significantly better on Common Core–aligned assessments, demonstrating that instructional time need not be sacrificed in order to instill empathy in young people!
Use the following TeachKind Rescue Stories reading comprehension worksheet to help students in grades 3–5 learn more about cows and understand that no one deserves to be used for food. This rescue story centers around Freddie, a cow who became famous after he ran away from a slaughterhouse in New York City.
Use other TeachKind resources to create an entire lesson around this rescue story, which can easily be incorporated into your next English language arts unit and is great for English-language learners, too. Be sure to visit SkylandsSanctuary.org to read more about Freddie and his friends. You can use this worksheet to address the following Common Core English language arts standards:
Grade 3
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.1
Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
Grade 4
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.1
Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
Grade 5
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.1
Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.