Are you looking for new sensory activities to do with your smaller students? Having a fun theme can be just what you need to kick start some lesson plan inspiration. The list below has twenty-three pet theme ideas for you to browse through.
Preschool, pre-K, and Kindergarten children will love these activities because they will allow them to talk about their own pets at home. These craft ideas can allow students to have classroom pets without the furry mess! Read to see these activities for preschoolers.
Story Time Ideas
1. Non-Fiction Pet Books
Here is a teacher's book recommendation pick. In this book, Cats vs. Dogs, students can immediately engage in conversation and work on social skills by asking: which one would you pick? Which pet do you think is smarter?
Learn more: Amazon
2. Fictional Preschool Books
Colette makes up a lie about having a pet. She needed to have something to talk about with her neighbors, and she thought this white lie about pet animals would be harmless until it unravels. Check out this wonderful book to share with your preschoolers.
Learn more: Amazon
3. Books About Dogs
This short, 16-page book about dogs contains a vocabulary list and teaching tips to help engage your students. While each student may have different kinds of pets, everyone enjoys a cute golden retriever. New and exciting books for students can be hard to find, but this one is ideal to kick off a pet-themed circle time unit.
Learn more: Amazon
4. Books About Animals
Turn this into a beautiful book by having each student contribute their drawing. Once they finish, hang each piece of paper up on your bulletin board so students can admire their work and discuss their favorite animals.
Learn more: Amazon
5. Books About Pets
A favorite class book for story circle time. There are so many pets in the pet store, so which one should he get? Students will learn the pros and cons of having each kind of pet as they read on.
Learn more: Amazon
Dog-Inspired Activity Ideas
6. Puppy Collar Craft
A little prep is involved here. You will need many strips of paper and lots of decorative cutouts ready for the collars. Or you could use white strips of paper and kids can decorate with watercolor paint. Just be sure not to take your pets for walks using these collars!
Learn more: Sunday Family
7. Paper Chain Puppy
Do you have a field trip coming up in your class? Are kids asking endlessly how many days are left until the big day? Use this paper dog chain as a countdown. Each day, students will remove a paper circle from the dog. The number of circles left is how many days until the field trip.
Learn more: The Chirping Moms
8. Playful Pup Newspaper Art Project
Here is your easy material list: card stock for the backdrop, collage paper, newspapers or magazines, scissors, glue, and a sharpie. Once you create one stencil of the different pieces of the dog, the rest is a cinch!
Learn more: Arty Crafty Kids
9. Dog Headband
Here's another great activity idea that involves dressing up! Be sure to have some dramatic play space available for when this fun craft activity is complete. You can either use brown paper or have students color white paper to create the dog color of their choice.
Learn more: Simple Everyday Mom
10. Dog Bone
This could make a great center activity for literacy skills. Fun literacy activities are hard to find, but everyone will be engaged when they see the bone shape. This activity is great for recognizing the difference between "d" and "b" letters.
Learn more: Engaging Littles
11. Alphabet Dot-to-Dot Dog House
Bring the ABCs to life with this dot-to-dot pet house creation. Preschoolers will have to sequence the ABCs to get the correct design. Which bone color will you choose to fill in once the house is drawn?
Learn more: Education.com
12. Complete the Dog House
Preschoolers will concentrate hard as they trace the dotted line. It is diagonal line tracing at its finest! Once complete, have students work on their counting skills by figuring out how many lines they just drew. End by coloring the scene.
Learn more: Education.com
13. Pre-Reading Dog Game
This would make a great whole class activity. Read the clues aloud to the class and have students raise their hands to state which puppy is named Rusty, which is Socks, and which is Fella. Lots of both focus skills and reasoning skills with this riddle.
Learn more: Education.com
14. Puppy Puppet
This is one of my favorite animal movement activity ideas. Paper towel tubes are the main material here. Since this craft is a bit more involved, it is best suited for the end of the school year once students have mastered their hand coordination and fine motor skills.
Learn More: Youtube
15. Toilet Paper Roll Puppy Dog
If you like number fourteen but feel it is too involved, try this idea first. It's a fairly simple art activity that will be more accessible earlier in the year. Have a stage or dramatic play center set up so kids can put on a play with their pups once complete!
Learn more: Simple Mom Project
16. Paper Plate Dog Craft
Grab some paper plates, colored paper, a sharpie, and some paint for this fun activity. When the class is done, hang these dogs up to make a beautiful bulletin board that's puppy themed! Refer back to this project when working on other pet shop activities.
Learn more: Simple Everyday Mom
17. Tin Foil Dog Sculpture
All you need for this is one piece of foil per child! Pre-cut the sections ahead of time and then students can mold the foil into whatever type of pet they choose. This no-mess craft will keep the classroom clean.
Learn More: Youtube
18. Animal Sounds Songs
We all know what a dog sounds like, but what about the other animals? Add this song in when you're planning lessons so students can learn to distinguish the correct sounds with this video. Wear your headband from idea #9 to add to this dramatic play idea.
Learn More: Youtube
19. Dog Food Tuff Tray
What's your dog's favorite type of dog food? Create this doggie bakery tray for kids to sort through. Just make sure they know it is food for dogs and not people! Kids will use visual discrimination skills as they figure out which type of food goes where.
Learn more: Story Trail Club
20. Bones Alphabet Cards
You could keep this as is, or turn this into a spelling game. For example, have the "A" and the "T" both be the color green and students have to do some bone color matching to spell the word "at". Or cut these letters up and have students sequence according to the ABCs.
Learn more: Preschool Alphabet
21. Build a Pet Home
Whether you're looking to create a glitter house pet or wild animal sorting activity, the building pet homes activity might be the perfect place to start. It's an activity pack that's ready to go for your dog and pet theme activities.
Learn more: Teachers Pay Teachers
22. Balloon Dogs
Teach students how to blow balloons with this activity. Once complete, tape pre-cut tissue paper for the ears. Then grab a sharpie to create the dog's face. A balloon dog is better than a stuffed animal and much more fun to make!
Learn more: Little Learning Corner
23. Paper Spring Dog
While this slinky-looking dog may look hard to make, it's actually rather simple. You'll need five items: scissors, 9x12 colored construction paper, tape, a glue stick, and, best of all, googly eyes! Once you have two long strips of paper that have been taped together, the rest is just gluing and folding.
Learn more: Mess For Less
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