Animal Care Education for School Teachers

For FREE, unlimited access to full unit plans, resources and supporting materials.

SPCA's Resources for Schools have been designed for primary and intermediate school teachers looking for innovative resources that provide real life, meaningful contexts for teaching and learning with the New Zealand Curriculum.

If you’d like to connect with like-minded kaiako and educators, get inspiration, gain support from others, and share what your tamariki have created and learnt, why not join our private Facebook group SPCA NZ Education Community.

What's New or Coming Soon!

New Reading Resources

Explore our three new reading resources, carefully designed to align with the refreshed English curriculum phases. These engaging, animal-focused texts support literacy development while building empathy and understanding of animal welfare. Students will strengthen key skills such as vocabulary, inference, and critical thinking, while learning about responsible animal care and the role of SPCA in their community.

Each resource includes differentiated response materials, comprehension questions, and follow-up activities tailored to curriculum expectations at each phase.

Check them out here!

Kind Matters – Term 2 2026

This Term 2 issue of Kind Matters explores the wonderful world of horses. Students will learn fun facts, discover how to care for horses responsibly, and build understanding around kindness and respect for animals.

With a mini quiz competition, hands‑on activities, animal news from across the motu, and the winning artwork from our Term 1 Drawing Competition, it’s a great resource to share with your class or add to your school library.

Read Kind Matters

Term Two Awareness Dates

This calendar highlights key animal welfare and environmental awareness dates across Term Two. Each date is supported with relevant SPCA teaching resources, making it easy to connect awareness days to classroom learning.

Use the links provided to explore lesson plans, unit plans, and kids’ portal resources that support age appropriate discussions, inquiry, and action around animal care, wellbeing, and our shared environment.

This calendar is updated each term to reflect new dates and resources.

Check it out below!!

Live Student Webinars

Join Christy, one of our awesome educators, for SPCA’s live education webinars.

Designed for primary and intermediate students, these interactive 30-minute Zoom sessions offer a fun way for students to learn about the role SPCA plays in their community, what animals need to be happy and healthy, and how they can help animals in need.

Each term includes a series of four webinars, each with a different topic, and multiple session times available to suit your class.

Learn more!