Pet Shop :Unit

We stared our unit off by reading the book The Perfect Pet

After reading the book we had a class discussion on what we would need to do to help the pets.

 We had a class discussion on what types of animals would make good pets and what types of animals would not. 

Pocket Chart Story using the children's names.

The children enjoyed rereading the pet story over and over so that they could hear and see their name.

Small Group Activities

Fish Bowl Letter Bingo

Calling cards are in lowercase letters and the fishbowl mat is uppercase letters.

Counting and Writing

Children were given small cats and dog counters with number mats and dry markers.  Children identified the number on the dog house and then counted out the amount of pets and placed them on the mat.  Once they had completed that they used dry markers to write the number.

Doggy letter match 

Children match the dogs to the right dog house by using the letters on each.

Art Studio

Children had the opportunity to go to the art studio and make pets of their choice.  

Here is what some of them came up with

 If you are looking for ideas for a Pet Shop Theme Lesson Plan, you can find one on TPT and TNB.

Teachers Pay Teachers

Teachers Notebook

Teachers Pay Teachers

Teachers Notebook

Letter Recognition Race Track Game

If you are having a hard time getting all the children in your class to practice letter recognition and letter sound activities then it is time to change it up.

All children like board games and all children like to roll dice so why not combined the two together and give the children what they want and what we want all in one.

Here is what we did.  We create game board mats for each child in a group.  We choose the letters based on the unit of study.  The children roll the dice identify the dice and move to that letter square.  If children need help they check with one another and the teacher is also there for support.  All children are winners and learners with this activity. 


You can find more transportation game that will promote learning in this lesson plan bundle on Transportation and Community Helpers.

Transportation Lesson Plan Bundle

We Are Finding Our ABC’s about Town

Through out the year we have been finding our ABC’s about town.  As children or staff find a store or something around town that start with a letter (we are studding) they take a picture of it and bring it to school to share.  If they do not take a picture they tell us what they found and we go out and take a picture for them.  We hope we can find the whole alphabet before the end of the school year and make our own ABC picture book.

Here are some of the pictures we have found for the ABC book

Our ABC Book About Town

A is for Arby’s

B is for Burger King

C is for Cat Tractor

L is for Lumber Jack’s

S is for Staples

Y is for Yuba City

Hanging Words and Names Out To Dry

Set up a clothes line with clothes pins for children to hand their name out to dry. They can even hand words of study out to dry. This is a fun way for children to work on letter recognition and also learning that letters form words.

Here is what we did:

• Write each students name on a sentence strip and cut apart, putting the letters in an envelope and write students name on the out side of the envelope.

• Write words of study on a sentence strip and cut apart, putting the letters in an envelope and write the word of study on the out side of the envelope along with a picture on the word pasted on the envelope.

• Students take a name or word of study from the pile of envelopes and attach the letters to the clothesline in order using the clothespins.

Materials: Yarn, dowels, mini-clothespins, sentence strips, envelopes, plaster of paris and an empty container, we used paint cans that were donated from the local paint store. (butter tubs, yogurt tubs, or any other type of container) Pour plaster of pairs into the container and place one dowel in the middle of the container and let dry. String yarn between the two dowels to create your clothesline. Hot glue yarn to the top of the wooden dowels to keep it in place. We placed the envelopes in the paint can for the children to access on their own. We also placed a basket of clothes pins near the clothes line.

Letter and Letter Sound Train Game

This week we played a new game called letter sound train game.

A group of 4 children sat down at the carpet area and each child started out with the engine of the train.  In the middle of the group were box cars with the letters written on each one, I made 4 letter cards for each letter.  The letters that I chose were ones that we have been working on and are introducing them to this month. (Bb, Cc, Rr, Ee, Ss, Tt).  I created a letter dice with these letters on each side.  I used a 6” X 6” mailing box.  We also placed small items that would start with each letter sound.  For example (Bb, boy, bee, ball, bat).

Each child took a turn rolling the dice. The group identified the letter and then found the letter card that matched the letter rolled. If the next child rolled the dice and it was a letter that they had a letter card for then they had to identify the letter sound and then each child found an item that started with that letter sound and placed it above the letter train card. The children continued the game until all the letter cards and items had been placed on their trains.

This game turned out to be a big hit all the children wanted to take turns playing the game with one another.

Pattern for the letter train