Dramatic Play Vet Clinic Activities for Preschoolers
It’s no surprise that children love pets. They know that just as they need to go to the doctor when they are sick there pets must do the same when they aren’t feeling well.
This vet clinic dramatic play activity will set up a simple, fun veterinarian clinic or vet office for the children in your preschool class.
This is a great opportunity to also teach children about the importance of respecting and caring for our pets and animals. You can then use the simple ideas below to start your pretend dramatic play vet clinic for teaching the kids and having some fun.
Simple Veterinarian Dramatic Play Ideas for Your Preschoolers:
Be sure to have a small area set aside in your classroom with a small table or two. You may also want to have a chair and maybe a shelf if possible. Whatever small area you have should be sufficient for a simple vet clinic and office area for this activity.
Veterinarian Clothing:
Most doctors are known for having long white coats or medical wear. Try to get yourself some long white coats or long white dress shirts . Something that gives the appearance of a doctors coat. This adds to the effect of being in a real vet clinic.
Cute Stuffed Animals:
You can get a series of small stuffed animals. Stuffed dogs and cats, toy turtles, snakes, birds, rabbits and any other type of animals that people have as pets. You can actually purchase these online or find them in dollar stores and retail stores for cheap.
Set up a small table area where these animals can be examined by the children using the vet clinic.
Toy X-Rays:
You can get your classroom or children some simple toy x-rays of different cute animals. These are perfect for your veterinarian office as the children examine them and help all the sick and injured animals that are present there.
The x-rays really make things fun and authentic for the preschool children as they take a close look at all the pets.
Pet Carrier:
If you have an old pet carrier, you could bring it in to use at the clinic with the stuffed animals. If not, you could use a couple of cardboard boxes to transport the pets.
You could use a couple of cardboard boxes to set up a recovery and resting are for the animals to go after they have been treated.
Dog/Cat Beds:
You could bring in a small dog bed or cat bed to add to the effect of the vet clinic dramatic play office.
Toy Cash Register & Supplies:
A simple cash register or toy register for children to use for accepting payments. They even have toy debit card machines and toy money that could be used depending on how elaborate you get with your play activity.
Setting Up Vet Appointments:
The children can pretend to set up vet appointments on a whiteboard or on a simple chart
Clipboards-Pencils & Paper:
Maybe an old clip board and a couple of markers or pens/pencils for the vet.
Toy Medical Kit or Doctors Kit:
There are toy doctors and toy vet kits that would have items and tools related to a medical examination. Things like a stethoscope, ear scope, toy thermometers, and other medical tools can be used by preschoolers to pretend to examine various stuffed animals like cats, dog, rabbits etc..
Setup A Pet Grooming Station:
You could set up a simple pet grooming station for the children where they can pretend to groom & bath various pets.
Colorful Images of Different Pets:
You could get a bunch of colorful images of different types of pets that people have like dogs, cats, birds, fish, snakes and others and have them set in the area for the kids to look at.
Add On Activity Ideas:
Before you start your vet clinic activities you could read stories at a circle time related to veterinarians or talking about pets and taking care of pets and animals. It is a good time to teach children about being nice and loving to animals and treating them with respect.
Music:
Find some fun music to set the mood. This isn’t necessary, but is good if you can find animal related music.
Veterinarian Books for Kids:
A Day in the Life of a Veterinarian (Community Helpers at Work)
OLIVIA Becomes a Vet (Olivia TV Tie-in)
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