This pet small world play is perfect for your preschool block center. During our recent pet theme, my preschoolers showed a renewed interest in some small toy animals I had in the classroom. So, we decided to put them to use in the block center.
I absolutely LOVE how the kiddos extended this activity way beyond my initial expectations. I’m reminded daily of the immensity of their imaginations, and this pet small world activity is just one of many examples!
create a pet small world play activity in the block center
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The set up for this activity was beyond easy! I simply set out a variety of small animal toys in our block center. I included any animals that might be construed as pets — snakes and lizards, cats, dogs, and a variety of other pets. The frogs and turtles were still in the sensory bin, though! I lined some of them up along our blocks, while others were placed in a bamboo bowl on the rug.
When the kiddos asked why I’d put the animals in the building center, I told them they could build pet houses if they wanted. As usual, they went above and beyond what I suggested! They used their imaginations to create an elaborate story about the pets, and they managed to spread the story throughout most of our classroom. I just sat back, watched, and listened to their incredible tale.
Pet houses were the first items created. Just a few children were involved at the point, building homes and placing animals within them.
From there, the snakes decided to rebel against the other animals! As the snakes were attacking, the remaining pets built ships to escape. Some pretend people joined in at this point, helping to build the boats. The ships left the block area and traveled all the way to our reading center.
The snakes caught up with the other pets near the math center. At this point, it was decided that a shelter was needed to hide the other pets from the snakes. There was a lot of discussion about the best way to build the new shelters!
After about an hour of this, we had to clean up. If we didn’t need to have snack and go outside, I’m sure the pet small world play would have gone on for another hour! It was amazing to watch the children work out the story line to their play. There was much give and take since so many children were involved in the process. A few disagreements broke out, but the children worked through them mostly on their own.
This pet small world play activity covered so many important skills:
- Conflict resolution
- Spatial awareness
- Sorting and counting
- Fine motor
- Gross motor
- Language
- Imaginative story telling
- Teamwork
Have you created any pet small world play invitations in your classroom or at home? I’d love some more ideas to add to my pet theme! 🙂
For more pet theme ideas, please check out my Pet Pinterest Board. If you have any activities to add to this board, I’d love to hear about them.
Block Sets for Block Center
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Below are what we have stocked in the block center all the time. There’s a wide variety of items available, but I may add large colorful blocks sometime in the near future.
- Hardwood blocks
- Colorful wood blocks
- Multicultural families
- Wooden town blocks
- Colorful glass jewels
- Empty thread spools
- Empty cardboard boxes
Done-for-You Preschool Resources
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Preschool Teacher 101 is excited to share with you some amazing lesson plans, activity packs, and other resources made specifically for preschool. We offer a wide variety of themes that are frequently used in preschool classrooms as well as less common (but super interesting) themes. Click on the image below to learn more about our pets lesson plans!
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Great ideas using the animals with blocks!
Fun! Do you limit number of students in each center?
This is the kind of activity that my son would just love. I think I may set it up for him tomorrow 🙂
Thanks so much, Clarissa! Super easy, I know, but the kiddos gained SO MUCH from this activity. Let me know how it goes if you give it a try. 🙂
Mary Catherine
What a great activity! I think my daughters would love this. I’ll have to try this with them and let you know how it turns out. Thank you for your post!