Educating and empowering people about compassion, love, and empathy towards animals is best done when they are still young. And Harrisburg Horizon Elementary in South Dakota is doing an excellent job of teaching their junior kindergarten class that and incorporating it in their lessons.

According to Sarah Hansen, the kindergarten teacher incorporates play-based learning in their lessons. By this approach, children also learn how to count, read, and interact with children along the way. And for this particular project, the class is assigned to make dog treats and sell them in a fundraiser.

The class will sell their dog treats for a dollar each, and the proceeds will go to the Almost Home Canine Rescue, a no-kill, non-profit, and volunteer-based dog rescue organization from Calgary, Albania. The rescue dogs have either came from an abusive home, a victim of neglect or accidents and surrendered and homeless dogs.

The excitement and eagerness in the children’s faces are palpable as they worked with their tiny hands to create the dog treats. One of the kids, Julia Page, is very critical of the quality of the goodies.

She points out how her twin brother used too much flour. She was also quick to comment on how undesirable the color of the raw ingredients is, but that’s because they’re still in the beginning stages!

Another boy named Garrett described that his favorite part in the activity is rolling the treats. The process of making one also has benefits for the children. They get to play together, interact with one another, and enjoy the slow process of making the treat which they know will go to something useful.

Despite the children’s diverse personalities, they all know one thing: Julia says that the dogs won’t have their home! It also helped that some of the children in class also have dogs in their households, such as Julia’s pet Boxer, who might be a little lucky to have a few of Julia’s treats!

Whatever the outcome will be, we’re sure that these treats will turn out lovely as long as they make them with love! Besides, there are other teachers in the room, overseeing and doing the quality control so the treats will turn out perfectly!

We hope that more schools like Harrisburg Horizon Elementary school would incorporate such fulfilling activities for the animals. Hopefully, the kids would become more responsible and caring animal lovers as they get older!

Here is a campaign from Almost Home Canine Rescue:

Source: AlmostHomeDogs via YouTube