PETS/ANIMALS/ZOO AND EYFS

**angeldelight** · 25-02-2010, 11:04 AM

Some ideas ....................

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

How do we look after our pets? - what do pets need to be healthy and happy? Do all pets need the same things - e.g. a bird and a dog?

How do we keep our animals clean - encourage children to help you clean your pets - clean rabbit , wash the dog all with supervision of course

Encourage children to help feed your animals and give them water - explain and ask the children why we do this

Where do we take our pets when they are sick?

Have some soft toy animals, stethoscopes, plastic syringes etc for some vet role play.

Washing hands - remind children to always wash their hands after touching animals. Practice this through play when they are pretending to be vets.

Who has been to a zoo? Give the children lots of time to talk about their experiences

Take the children for a visit to the zoo or a farm talk about the animals and how they live and are cared for

Some links here with good ideas

http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-topics-pets.htm

http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics/Heal...np=282&id=1502

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/la...ps/zoo-animals

Communication, Language and Literacy

Collect together lots of different lift the flap books/animals books.
Encourage children to look at the pictures and tell the story and make sounds

Songs and rhymes sing 'We're going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo', 'Old Macdonald had a Zoo' etc.

Don't forget puppets, props, story boards, role play etc

Discuss what animals are small, tall, huge , big etc

Discuss all the sounds that different animals make encourage children to tell you and to make the sounds

Talk about what animals live outside , what animals live indoors
Where animals live - barn - hutch - cage etc and why

Talk about animals and their babies and what they would be called

Some helpful links

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/sub...albabies.shtml

http://www.meddybemps.com/9.692.html

http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Farm/animalsounds.html

Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy

Measuring - the giraffe is too tall. Give the children opportunities to 'measure' things around the setting with rulers and tape measures. Decide which is the tallest out of a selection of plastic animals - how can we do this? Line them up. The children might want to do the same with each other!

Heavy and Light - the Elephant's crate is labelled 'heavy'. Have a collection of boxes or containers of different sizes with lids. Put objects of different weights inside and let the children explore picking them up and deciding which are heavy and which are light. Try to have something light in a big box and something heavy in a small box to get them thinking and talking!

Sort small world zoo animals from pet animals.

Play animal pairs games.

Size and shape - have a collection of boxes and containers and small world animals. Which ones would fit best in which boxes?

Useful links

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/numbers/chi.shtml

http://www.meddybemps.com/animalcount/

http://www.allkidsnetwork.com/worksh...sheet-farm.asp

Knowledge and Understanding of the World

The children might be really interested in one particular animal. Help them to find out more about it - where does it come from, what does it eat, where does it live?

Making medicines for the animals - colour the water in a water tray and add a selection of small bottles with lids, spoons, funnels and some extra special ingredients that the children can add

Talk about what different animals eat - find pictures

Visit a pet shop look at all the different food see if the children can guess what food is for which animal

Talk about the zoo what animals live in them

Talk about the farm and what animals might live there

Talk about what animals you could have live in your home

Vets' Surgery - have a table and chair for a reception area as well as a table for the 'vet' to examine and treat the animals. On the reception desk include a phone, notepad, pens, forms (collect some from your local vets, and some posters too), appointment cards etc. In the treatment area include some animal carriers (baskets/boxes) , stethoscopes, plastic syringes, bottles, bandages, thermometers etc. Provide lots of soft toy animals to be treated.

Some useful links

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/the...on/default.htm

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/the...on/default.htm

http://www.kidsfarm.com/farm.htm

Physical Development

Pretend to be different animals and encourage children to stretch out on the floor and try to be that animal using their bodies

'It was too....' - invite the children to be the things you say, e.g. 'it was too tall' (stretch up high), 'it was too small' (crouch down low),'it was too jumpy' (jump about) etc.

Animal sounds - roar, hiss, croak, trumpet etc.

Go in the garden encourage children to show you which animals move fast - slow etc
Encourage the children to have a race eg can the snail win the lion?

Make little containers for small world animals out of Lego, wooden bricks, small boxes, stickle bricks

Some useful links

http://www.outdoor-nature-child.com/animal-pretend.html

Creative Development

Animal Patterns - look at the different patterns on animals skins. Do some printing to recreate them. Or use animal print paper to make a collage.

Elephant skin is very rough and wrinkly. Invite the children to help you mix up very thick grey paint and use combs to make wrinkly skin patterns.

Make animal stick puppets out of felt and lollipop sticks.

Pig Musical Maraccas-
Take two clear plastic large glasses and fill them with rice and tape them up together. Then take paper and cut out pigs ears, eyes, nose amd mouth. Glue these all on to the front of the cup. Then you can play old McDonald had a farm and play the maraccas to the music. Kids love playing with what they make.

Ask the children to help you make a zoo background - greys, greens and browns. They could use big sponges and paint straight onto a display board. Display each child's photo with their animal face, and ask the children to help you attach a flap to cover them up. Lots of fun can be had lifting the flap to see not only animals at the zoo but the children too!

Make some animal biscuits and decorate them

Ingredients
200g (8 oz) Self Raising Flour
100g (4 oz) Caster Sugar
100g (4 oz) Butter or Margarine
1 Beaten egg
Grated rind and juice of half a lemon

Method
(1) Mix flour and sugar together.

(2) Rub in the butter or margarine, with your fingertips.

(3) Add lemon rind and juice, and enough beaten egg to make a stiff dough.

(4) Roll out thinly, and cut into animal shapes or any desired shape.

(5) Place on a greased baking tray, and bake for 15 mins at 180°C, 350°F or Gas Mark 4.

Decorate

Some useful links

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/animals/

http://www.coloring.ws/animals.html

http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/mfarmposter.html

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/ani...ring_pages.htm

Some good ideas here also

http://topicbox.net/Foundation%20Stage/Animals/

Angel xxxx

**estrelas** · 25-02-2010, 12:51 PM

Fab, fab, fab
Cheers Angel xx

**sandy64** · 25-02-2010, 01:04 PM

thanks angel im doing a animal topic for april so this will help me so much thanks.

**marian** · 25-02-2010, 01:27 PM

Thank you so much - brilliant!

Marian x

**Leanne59** · 25-02-2010, 02:49 PM

Some fantastic ideas for when I start planning. many thanks.

**Trouble** · 25-02-2010, 03:01 PM

Thank you angel xxxxxx

**michellethegooner** · 25-02-2010, 04:17 PM

Thank u angel xx

**Joannechildmind** · 25-02-2010, 06:43 PM

thnakyou you truly are an angel

**fridaysoff** · 26-02-2010, 01:18 PM

thanks - great for National pet month April/ May time

**Tink** · 26-02-2010, 01:20 PM

Thank you Angel were doing Jungle animals next month how fantastic.

The children are really into monkeys/crocodiles/elephants etc so this will be fantastic

Thanks again xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx