And then, when finished with their exams, they got treats. Toddlers and preschoolers love to talk about pets, either in their own homes or in the homes of friends and other family members. One of our spring themes each year involves pets, and the highlight is a veterinarian center! In this center the children take phone calls, fill out forms, check x-rays, and use tools from our medical kits to help dogs, cats, birds, bunnies … and many more types of pets. It’s one of our favorite dramatic play activities every year! Often I will set this center up to connect with the current theme, such as our ice cream shop (summer theme), flower shop (spring), and post office (community helpers). I love this area because it invites my young students to use their imaginations while also building communication skills. With my 2 year olds there is a lot of parallel play until about halfway through the school year, when they will start interacting with each other. It usually starts with them sitting at our small square table together while passing around whatever props/toys that are involved. Then, they start adding dialogue to their play. In our 3 year olds class, this area is popular (and crowded) right from the first day of school and continues being a popular area the entire school year. We used printables from my Veterinarian Packet. This included:
Signs Labels for Supplies Forms Lanyard Badges X-Ray Photos Coloring Sheets
Toy Veterinarian Collection Clipboards Pet Carriers Light Table for Pet X-Rays Assortment of Stuffed Pets
Lola Gets a Cat Little Kids First Big Book of Pets Hello World! Pets Biscuit Visits the Doctor Caring for Your Pets: A Book About Veterinarians National Geographic Readers: Animal Doctors
The Set Up
I created a veterinarian center that included a check-in area, waiting area, and exam area. I added keyboards, a phone, clipboards, a calculator and forms to this area. My preschoolers love office supplies! Yes, I do move furniture around when I change themes! I took the couch from our reading corner and added it to the dramatic play center so that we had a waiting area. The children loved sitting on this couch holding their pets! Dramatic play is always more fun when there is something on the dress-up cart! We had a scrubs and vests from various veterinarian/doctor kits that we collected over the years. I also attached the veterinarian badges to lanyards for the children to wear while they examined their pets. Not only did I move the couch over to this area, but also our light table. I added the pet x-rays and the children had fun guessing what animals they were! Pets were placed on top and checked thoroughly! As I’ve discussed many times in my YouTube videos, less is best with younger children and they aren’t as overwhelmed. Pets Resource Page Here is my Privacy Policy
