Pet Week Toddler Classroom Ideas

Pet Week in the toddler classroom combines learning and pets.

Pet Week in the toddler classroom presents a variety of ideas to incorporate toddlers' love of animals and learning. While there is an almost endless supply of craft ideas that involve animals, toddlers are still developing their motor skills and you should keep a "simpler is better" approach for them. Other ideas that incorporate pet animals into a toddler classroom have a variety of benefits including the development of gross motor skills, identification skills and language skills.

Crafts

Combining crafts and animals will be a delight for children.

Crafts are an instrumental part of a toddler's development. For Pet Week, consider having all the children bring in pictures of their pets. Make magnet frames out of craft foam and let the children finger-paint the frames. You can also let the children make cat, dog or other pet masks out of paper plates. If you are working with young toddlers (ages between 10 months and one-and-a-half years), cut the eyes of the mask for them. Older toddlers can use safety scissors under supervision. Glue a craft stick on the back of the mask so children can easily hold them in front of their faces.

You can also get coloring pages--featuring dogs, cats, horses, fish, gerbils, rabbits and other pets--from either coloring books or off of the Internet. Coloring encourages the development of fine motor skills and color identification.

Identification Skills

A stack of old magazines might have a lot of pictures of animals.

Pictures of pets are all around. Magazines, books, movies and television programs often feature pets. Organize an activity involving some sort of media where the children will pick out pets. This could include playing a movie that features dogs and cats, looking through various magazines (family and children's magazines often feature animals) or reading picture books with domestic animals in them. Have the children point, yell, or act like the animal when it appears during the activity.

Motor Skills and Exercise

CDs and music can get children moving.

Have children walk, act and make noises like common pets to music. If you have a children's CD that pertains to animals, this is ideal, but if you don't, simply putting on any classical music will be fun for the children. Have the children walk in a circle on all fours, then say which animal you would like them to imitate. Let them go around the circle once or twice as each animal. Before starting this exercise, you can have a refresher for the children on which noises all the animals make, as well as showing pictures of each animal if your toddlers are on the younger side.

Call In an Expert

Consult with a local animal rescue or shelter to have an individual come to your classroom to talk to the kids. Some rescues may have an animal that accompanies them on these sorts of trips that are trained for being around children. The children will delight in having someone new to talk to and impress with their knowledge, and if there's an animal accompanying the individual from the shelter they will delight even more.

Resources

• First School: Pets Preschool Activities and Crafts
• Family: Animal Crafts for Toddlers