Preschool Pets Theme

Below you can find tons of fun and engaging Preschool pets activities!

Use the suggested ideas below to help you plan your preschool pets lessons! Spend time this week talking about how we care for Pets, Different kinds of Pets, and their differences. If you are able to take a field trip in your community consider: A local Veterinarian, Shelter, or Pet Store.

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Planning your Pets Theme

Club Members can download our Pet Activities and Pet Theme Planning Guide for free!
​Not a member? Learn More Here

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Download our Free Pets Preschool Sample Plan

Featured Plan Activities

Below you’ll find activity ideas featured in our Pets sample plan.

Art & Creativity
Paw Print Art
Put out plates of brown paint and a variety of plastic animals. Have children dip the feet of the animals in the paint and then walk them across their paper to create paw print art!

Dramatic Play
Pet Clinic
 Transform your Dramatic Play Space into a Pet Clinic.

Building & Small World Play
Build Pet Homes
Invite children to pick an animal and build them a home.

Language and Literacy
First Sounds Letter Clip Cards
Clip the initial sound of pet-related words with these engaging clip cards.
Name Your Pet Group Discussion
Get your preschoolers talking and practicing their language skills with this group discussion activity! In this activity, children will have the opportunity to share their creativity and imagination by discussing what they would name their dream pet. This activity promotes language development, critical thinking, and social interaction.

Mathematics
Fish Bowl Math
This counting activity is a fun hands-on way to practice counting skills and get in some fine motor practice.
Dog Positional Words Activity
Learn about positions with this fun and interactive dog-themed activity.

Science & Discovery
How to Care for Pets
Have a whole group discussion about how to care for different pets. Students will engage in a lively conversation, sharing their ideas about what pets need to be happy and healthy. This activity promotes critical thinking, empathy, and responsibility towards animals.
Sort & Group Pet Items
Sort various pet-related items into categories like food, toys, and grooming tools, enhancing their categorization skills and vocabulary. They will also enjoy the hands-on nature of the activity, as they handle real or toy pet items. The children will have a blast while learning all about pets and how to sort and group different items!

Physical Fine Motor
Pick-Up Bird Seed with Tweezers
Set out a bin of bird seed and a few empty bins. Provide children with tweezers and have them pick up individual pieces of bird seed and transfer them to the empty bins. You can extend this activity by given each child a specific number of bird seeds to transfer so that they practice counting and fine motor skills at the same time!

Physical Gross Motor
Animal Friends Yoga
Have children practice yoga poses related to animals specifically animals that could be pets. Yoga poses are great for practicing balance and coordination.

Other
Have You Seen My Pet
Create a class book filled with images or drawings of each child's pet. If a child doesn't have a pet, invite them to draw and name a pet they would like to have. You can have children dictate a sentence or two about their pet that can be added to the photos or drawings. Children can share about their pets at circle time and then the completed book can be left out for them to look through throughout your pet study.

Paper Plate Pet

Create an adorable Paper Plate Pet this week! See the Paper Plate Pet Tutorial on my blog

Try this!

Pet Rock

Have the children create a pet rock. Provide a variety of rocks for them to pick from, paint, glue and various art supplies. Invite the children to make their own pet rock.
We have a tutorial on how to create a pet rock on our blog. 

Try this!

Paw Print Art

Put out plates of brown paint and a variety of plastic animals. Have children dip the feet of the animals in the paint and then walk them across their paper to create Paw Print Art!

Dog Bone Art

Dog Bone Art-from Pre-K Printable Fun
Directions: Use dog bone cookie cutters or dog bones, dipped in paint to create an open ended Pet Art Project.

Paper Plate Aquarium Craft

Have your preschoolers paint a paper plate blue then glue on Goldfish Crackers once it has dried.  Cut out the center of a second paper plate and staple the plates together to make it look like an aquarium.

Pet Parade

Work with preschoolers to create their own animal headbands using construction paper for the different animals. Let preschoolers decorate their own and do a pet parade around your classroom, or school to show other classrooms.

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Suggested Dramatic Play Props for Pet Week

This week we are going to take care of our pets health by creating a Veterinarian Space. Other ideas include creating  a Pet Adoption Center or a Grooming Center.

Pet Clinic

Easily transform your dramatic play space into a Pet Clinic using our printable Pet Clinic Dramatic Play pack!
Includes all the forms and signs you need to set up your clinic.

Pet Clinic Dramatic Play pack available in our shop!

To create an imaginary Veterinarians Office in your Space this week. Add Stuffed animals, clipboards, Water bowls, Pet Carriers/cages, Doctors Sets, and Books about animals. Consider contacting a local veterinarian in your community to see if they have any free pamphlets for you to use as well.

 This Veterinarian Dramatic Play space belongs to Pre-K Printable Fun Community member Sherri W. of First Friends Family Child Care. Her fish bowls are adorable!

Dog Groomer Dramatic Play

Set up your Dramatic Play Area as a dog grooming station. Provide several stuffed animal dogs, brushes, combs, empty shampoo bottles and sponges. Leave out an empty large tub tote that students can use to give the dogs a bath and an old hair dryer they can use to pretend to dry the dogs once they are done.

Set up a Pet Inspired Small World Play Invitation

Add a variety of plastic/wooden play pets, and mini pet accessories in your block area this week. In addition to play homes, you can also add different felt habitats such as blue felt for sky or water, green felt for grass, and brown felt for dirt.

Build Pet Homes

Add stuffed/plastic pets and animal home building supplies to your small world space. Invite children to pick an animal and build them a home.

Build a Pet

Create an invitation to build a pet by leaving out different building supplies such as blocks, boxes, paper towel tubes, etc. Challenge children to make different pets from one type of building supplies or see how many different building supplies they can use to create their pet!

Pet Vet Small World Play

Set up a veterinarian small world play invitation. Set out a variety of plastic animals along with printables from our Pet Clinic Dramatic Play pack  using our tutorial for printing to a smaller scale or a small world play set like this one. 

Feed the Dog Name Building Activity

Preschoolers will love this name recognition activity!
Customize the puppy and bones to show the child's name then invite the preschooler to feed the dog as they build their name. From the Editable Name Activities Pack. 

*Dog Bone Letter Sorting

Use these upper and lowercase sorting matters from my Pets Activity Pack to help children practice differentiating upper and lowercase letters. Set out the mat and the dog bone letters and invite them to sort each letter by placing it in the correct dog bowl.

Get our Pets Activity Pack in our shop!

*First Sounds Pet Clip Cards

Use these sound clip cards from my Pets Activity Pack to help children practice identifying beginning sounds of words. Have the child identify the pet or pet item in the picture. Then have them isolate the first sound of that word and match it to the letter on the card by clipping a clothespin on the correct sound.

Get our Pets Activity Pack in our shop!

What Would You Name Your Pet?

Have children discuss what name they would give to their pet and why. You can give them different pet examples and have them come up with a name for each or have them pick their favorite type of pet and name it! This would make a great circle time question of the day. Each child could take a turn sharing their ideas.

Guess the Animal

Give preschools descriptions and clues to have them try and guess which animal you are describing. A great activity to introduce new vocabulary to preschoolers

I Want to Be a Vet by Dan Liebman
Little Kids First Big Book of Pets by Catherine Hughes
What Pet Should I Get? by Dr. Seuss
Let's Get a Pup! Said Kate by Bob Graham
Sparky! by Jenny Offill and Chris Appelhans
Who Wants a Tortoise? by Dave Keane and K.G. Campbell
Our Very Own Dog: Taking Care of Your First Pet by Amanda McCardie and Salvatore Rubbino
I Found a Kitty! by Troy Cummings
Have you seen my cat? Eric Carle

Support your preschooler in learning and practicing positional phrases with this engaging Dog House Positional Phrases Set 

Dog House Activity Available in our Shop

Rainbow Goldfish Color Sorting and Graph

Give each child a bowl of rainbow Goldfish and several empty bowls. Have children sort eat of the Goldfish by color. Children will be practicing important sorting skills as they recognize that some of the fish are the same color and belong together. Graph the results for added enrichment.

*Fish Bowl Counting Mats

Use these Fish Bowl Counting Mats from my Pets Activity Pack to practice matching quantity to number using tens frames. Children identify the number on the math and then count out that amount of "fish food" (small pom poms or pieces of play dough) and put them on the tens frame.

Get our Pets Activity Pack in our shop!

*Feed the Puppy

 Help children practice counting out the correct amount by playing this Feed the Puppy game from my Pets Activity Pack. Have the child roll the die and then put the correct number of bones in the dog's bowl.

Get our Pets Activity Pack in our shop!

Fishbowl Math

This counting activity is a fun hands on way to practice counting skills and get in some fine motor practice.
Get the details on our blog.

Try This!

No Bake Dog Biscuits

Help your children make dog biscuits using this no bake dog biscuit recipe from our blog!

Try this!

Learn About How to Care for Pets

Talk about all of the items that we need to have in order to take care of our pets. Then sort and group pet items by type (Food, Homes, Toys, etc.). This activity helps to practice sorting and classification which are two very important early science skills!

Animal Wash Sensory Bin

Create an animal wash sensory bin by filling a bin with water and soap. Add in a variety of plastic animals.  Provide sponges, scrubbers, towels, etc. for children to practice washing and taking care of the pets. 

Pet Food Investigation & Categorizing
Have children place Pet Counters next to the food they think each animal eats. If you don't have pet counters you can substitute with pictures of rabbits, dogs, cats, birds, and fish.

More Pet Theme Math Ideas from Around the Web

Pet Themed Sensory Tub from Totally Tots
Bird Seed Slime from Sugar Spice and Glitter
House Pet or Wild Animal Sorting Activity from No Time for Flashcards
Pet Paper Bag Sorting from Peaceful Parenting

Scoop Pet Food

Set out dog bowls, a variety of scoops and a bin with actual dry pet food or pretend pet food (brown pom poms, small pebbles, etc.). Have students practice scooping from the large bin into the individual bowls to develop their find motor skills and coordination.

Pick up Bird Seed with Tweezers

Set out a bin of bird seed and a few empty bins. Provide children with tweezers and have them pick up individual pieces of bird seed and transfer them to the empty bins. You can extend this activity by given each child a specific number of bird seeds to transfer so that they practice counting and fine motor skills at the same time!

Puppy Tricks

Have the children pretend they are puppies. Call out puppy tricks for them to do such as shake paw,  roll over, jump, etc. This is a great way to get some gross motor play in while also practicing listening and direction following skills!

Animal Friends Yoga

Have children practice yoga poses related to animals specifically animals that could be pets. Yoga poses are great for practicing balance and coordination.

Have You Seen My Pet?

Create a class book filled with images or drawings of each child's pet. If a child doesn't have a pet, invite them to draw and name a pet they would like to have. You can have children dictate a sentence or two about their pet that can be added to the photos or drawings. Children can share about their pets at circle time and then the completed book can be left out for them to look through throughout your pet study.

*Graph Your Pets

Have the children complete a "What kind of pet do you have?" bar graph.  Add a bar or dot for each student who has that type of pet. Once complete, you can compare the different kinds of pets and talk about the category of pet that has the most and least.

Get our Pets Activity Pack in our shop!

Play a Group Game

Play a pet themed group came such as Pet Charades. Each child can be given a type of pet to act out and the other children can try to guess what type of pet they are.

Feed the dog

Helping to keep the classroom clean is everyone's responsibility. To help make this fun, attach a photo of a dog to your classroom trashcan. When you find scraps, encourage your students to throw away their trash by asking them to  "please feed the dog".

Pets Preschool Activty Pack

$7.00

Dogs, cats, and fish, oh my! These Pet-Themed Activities for preschool include 23 engaging activities focused on pets of all kinds. These easy-to-assemble preschool activities can be placed in your math or literacy centers, trays, or turned into task box or file folder activities. Theme pet-themed activities can also be used as small-group or whole-group activities.

Easily combine these pet-themed activities with your favorite manipulatives that you have laying around the house, or classroom (clothespins, pom poms, and mini erasers are popular).

All of our packs contain a variety of activities that focus on some of the following skills: colors, shapes, uppercase/lowercase letter matching, counting, 1:1 correspondence, patterning, fine motor skill strengthening, and more! 

⭐ What’s included in this 82-page Pet Themed Activities Pack for Preschool?

• Help the Puppy find his bone Color Match
• Kitty Cat Shape Match Cards
• Fishbowl Counting Mats with Frames (with & without counters)
• Feed the Puppy Counting Mat, Cards and Cube
• Dog Bone Puzzle
• Dog Bone Sorting
• Who lives here Match Up
• Animal Covering Sorting
• Pet Pre-Writing
• Feed the Pet Match-up
• Dog Bone Uppercase & Lowercase Sorting
• Pet Word Wall Cards
• First Sounds Pet Letter Clip Cards
• Pet Count Clip Cards
• Pet Graph
• Roll & Move like a Pet
• Feed the Dog Editable Name Activity
• Dog Themed Editable Name Worksheets
• Dog Positional Words Activity
• At the Animal Clinic I Spy Vocabulary Search
• Pet 3-Part Cards featuring real photos of pets
• My Pet Mini Coloring Book
• Let’s Measure Yarn Balls

Also includes Cover, Directions, TOS, and Graphics Credit

Pre-K Printables Club Members:

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Pet Clinic Veterinarian Dramatic Play Pack

$4.00

Easily transform your dramatic play area into a Pet Clinic or Veterinarian Office. Inside this pack you'll find a variety of easy to assemble props such as signs, forms, x-rays and labels for pretend play fun!

Pet Clinic Veterinarian Dramatic Play Pack

This .pdf file includes:

Welcome to the Vet Clinic Sign

Welcome to the Pet Clinic Sign

Welcome to the Veterinarian Clinic Sign

Pet Clinic Form

Open/Closed Signs

Waiting Area Sign

X-Ray Area Sign

Exam Area Sign

Surgery Area Sign

Please Sign In Sign

Please Wait In Line Sign

Clipboard Sign In Sheet

Printable Pet Scale

Labels: Bandages, X-Rays, Medical Supplies, Medicine, Scale, Cotton Swab

Types of Pets Poster (featuring real images) Rabbit, Dog, Cat, Bird, Guinea Pig, Fish, Turtle

Veterinarians hard at work poster (real photo images)

B&W Animal X-Rays: Bird, Fish, Guinea Pig, Turtle, Rabbit, Dog Paws, Cat Head

Parts of Animals Posters Featuring Real Images: Rabbit, Dog, Cat, Bird, Guinea Pig, Fish, Turtle

Suggested props, TOS , Graphics Credit

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I Can Give My Dog a Bath Read and Sequence Literacy Activity

$2.00

This fun literacy pack supports early reading skills with a rebus story about bathing a dog and a sequencing activity.

In this 7-page pack you will find:

• Rebus Story and Word Bank: I Can Give My Dog a Bath
• I can give my dog a bath sequencing activity
• I can give my dog a bath cut color and paste sequencing activity
• Also included: Directions, TOS, Graphics Credit, and Contact Information

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