ABSTRACT
Expressive pencil drawings overlaid with soft washes of watercolor on creamy stock and minimal, rhyming text work in tandem to create a delightful introduction to the diversity of dog species with a focus on opposites—big, small, stripy, spotty, tough, and soft. In this chapter, students focus on Inheritance of Traits by exploring the similarities and differences between young animals and their parents. Students extend their learning and focus on Variation of Traits by investigating the similarities and differences among adult animals of the same species. When the children have finished their drawings, encourage them to Turn and Talk with a neighbor about how their dogs are similar and how they are different. Some students may have trouble understanding the ways in which animals of the same species can and can’t vary.
