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Animals > Pets | Animal | Pet observances & events | Online story time > Animal stories
Activity 1 > Online Story > The Perfect Pet (Flash Player required)
This is a fun story that take children on a visit to a pet shop to find the perfect pet.After reading the story go back and make sure to discuss how would they take care of each pet. Review the resources below.
Activity 2 > Online Activity>Pick a pet(Flash Player required)
Activity 3 > Learn about Pet Care
Share all the right basic things about taking care of pets This demonstrates to children also to care for their toys which sets the stage for caring for all living things and property.
The most popular pets are: dogs, cats, hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs, rabbits, ferrets, horses, pet birds [canaries, finches, cockatiels, parakeets, and lovebirds], mice, rats and fish.
Activity 4 > Show and Tell About My Special “Pet”
This is a good activity where children can be invited to bring their favorite “pet toy” for show and tell. Children can say anything they want to share about their pet toy they are sharing, and encourage them to say the name of their toy pet.
The parent, educator or child care provider can prepare some questions for children about how the children take care of their special toy pet.
Alternative activity for preschool & child care facilities: Instead of show & tell, use any toys or images you may have representing pets and ask the children if they have any of these “toy pets” at home and to share how they care for them.
Activity 4 > My First Pet Care Riddle Book
Children love simple riddles. Riddles are a great way to enhance comprehension and memory. After readingand discussing basic pet care tips put together a small riddle book with “stickers”, discuss the parts of a book and how many books have illustrations, practice numbers 1 through 4 and practice tracing children’s first name:
- Print the three pages above (color only)
- Cut out the pages and “stickers”
- Place the “stickers” in front of the child.
- Ask child to identify each pet, tell the child they are going to play a riddle game to place the right illustrations on the page.
- Tell children many books have important illustrations that help the reader understand the topic or story. An author may write and also be an artist – and illustrate a story or topic, or a person may specialize in one aspect – be a writer/author or an illustrator only.
- Read each riddle and ask child to find the sticker (illustration) that solves the riddle and when s/he has chosen correctly they can glue to the page.
- Complete the four riddles.
- Parts of a Book: This is also a good opportunity to discuss the parts of a book during the process of assembling the book.
- Cover: Tell them a book has a cover and show them the cover. Write their name with proper upper case and lower case lettering, or for older children “write” the name with dots so they can connect the dots.
- Pages & Numbers: Ask the children to organize the pages in the order they would like to have their book “published”.
- After they have assembled the pages proceed to practice number 1 thru 4 (do not number the cover) and write the numbers on each page in front of the child so s/he can see how the numbers are written. For older children “write” the numbers with dots and they can connect the dots.
- Staple or use a hole punch and lace the children may lace the book with yarn. Tip: put a little tape on the tip of the yarn to make it easier to insert through the holes and help children tie a knot.
External resources for pet ownership:
Owning a Pet Coloring Book PDF K-3 [bilingual] Courtesy of avma.org
This bilingual coloring/activity book provides young children with activities that teach them about being a responsible pet owner. Written in English with Spanish subtitles.
