Pre-K Pets Theme Unit

~ Pre-K & Preschool theme ideas for learning about pets ~

Books

Rhymes

Old Mother Hubbard

Old Mother Hubbard
Went to the cupboard
To get her poor doggie
A bone.
But when she got there
The cupboard was bare
And so the poor doggie
Had none.

Hey Diddle Diddle

Hey Diddle Diddle,
The cat and the fiddle.
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed to see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.

Hey Diddle Diddle Printable

Songs

How Much is That Doggie in the Window: traditional song
Old Mother Hubbard: Rhymin' to the Beat Vol. 2 CD by Jack Hartmann
Rags: Rhymin' to the Beat Vol. 2 CD by Jack Hartmann

Activities

Obedience School

[Large Motor]
Children pretend to be dogs. As a few dog commands are called out (fetch, sit, lie down, roll over, bark, beg, come, etc.), the children act them out.

Pet Movements

[Large Motor]
The children choose which kind of pet they want to be. They move around and make the sounds of that animal.

Pet Food

[Fine Motor Skills]
This idea came from one of my students one year. Children roll Model Magic into little balls for pet food and paint the pieces brown. They use the pretend food in the pet store and in their pretend play with the toy dogs and cats. Or, use play dough (see below).

Pet Food Play Dough

[Fine Motor Skills]
Similar to the above activity, children roll play dough into little balls to make dog food or cat food and place them into a bowl. Rolling play dough into balls is a good fine motor skill.

Pet Cutting Skills

[Fine Motor Skills]
I printed out some dog and cat clipart and cut them into strips. The children used scissors to snip the pictures and glue them on a piece of paper. This was a free choice activity in our art center.

Dog House

[Art]
This is another idea from one of my students. Children made dog houses with cardboard boxes. They worked together with others to make the doghouses, deciding how it would look, where the door would be, and what materials to use to decorate the house.

Pet Store

[Dramatic Play, Literacy, Social Skills]
Children made pet food, dog houses, pet toys, and leashes to sell in their pet store. A cash register with play money, paper, and pencils were added and the children wrote receipts and price tags for the items.

Pet Store Signs

[Literacy]
Children made signs for their pet store.

Story Retelling

[Literacy]
Choose a pet-themed book that you would consider good literature (good characters, plot, beginning, middle, end, etc.) Show the book to the children and tell them to think about what happened in the story, and the people (characters) and places they saw in the story. Think about what each character said. Give each child a piece of paper and ask them to draw something they remember from the story. Remind them that this should not be a picture of their cat or their friends, but only pictures of things from the book. After each child has illustrated the story, have them retell the story in their own words. Either record each child with a voice recorder or write their dictation on the page.

Pets Stamping Game

[Math, Literacy]
Write a letter or numeral on each cat or dog, and make a copy for each child. Children will draw a number or letter card from a stack (or roll a die), find that letter/numeral on their mat, and stamp it out. You can use rubber stamps or bingo dot markers. As an alternative, you can have children draw an "X" over the pet if stamps or bingo dot markers are not available.

Pet Game
Printable

Pet Graph

[Math]
Our graph title was "What is your favorite pet?" In the top of the chart, I placed pet clipart (available in the Printables section). The children chose which pet they would like to have, and placed their name card in the pocket chart graph. We counted how many of each animal, and determined most/least/same.

Dog and Cat Card Game

[Math]
For each set of cards, half of the cards (index cards) are stamped with dogs and half with cats to represent the numbers 0-4. Children work in pairs, and have an equal amount of cards: one child has cat cards, the other child has dog cards. Players turn over a card simultaneously. The player whose card has the most cats or dogs keeps both cards for that round of the game. When the players tie, they both keep only their own card. Children compare more, less, and same amounts.

Dog Counting Game

[Math]
These counting cards were made with index cards, a dog notepad from the teacher store, and a paw print stamp. Children count the paws and match them to the numeral on the dog.

Pet Care Prop Box

[Dramatic Play Center]
In the house center, we have toy dogs and cats with pet food bowls, rawhide bones, pet carrier, collars, leash, pet bed, pet toys. We keep these in our house center all year.