7 Things You Need to Make Your Own Dramatic Play Pet Vet Animal Hospital

Pre-K let’s play has created a Pet Vet Dramatic play theme. Is there a doctor in the house? No need to worry. Your students will do. If you’re looking for a pet hospital, then you come to the right place.

 

Kids love to help and take care of animals. So bring all that care, fun, and imagination into the classroom. Do this by changing the dramatic play center into an animal hospital. Watch your students pretend to be doctors as they give the animals food and medicine. This pet vet theme gives students a chance to learn and practice many things. Especially literacy and fine motor skills.

Trust me. They won't be learning this in a boring desk setting. All this learning is happening through play. In fact, it's all happing in your dramatic play center. Continue reading and I’ll share with you 7 tips that you need to create a pet hospital in your classroom.

 

1. Pet Vet Materials and props

Props can be very useful for your dramatic play center. They encourage your students to use their imagination. Props also make your dramatic play area feel like a pet clinic. For this Dramatic play theme, feel free to add stuffed animals. As a matter of fact, it's best to place them throughout your pretend play area. Encourage your students to use these stuffed animals as pretend patients. The more variety of stuffed animals, the better.

 

I was also able to find and use real-life materials that pets often use. Students were familiar with many of these props. As a result, many students already knew how to use them. Animal cages. Dog bowls. Empty boxes of pet food. Pet toys. These are a few examples of props that you can use in your classroom.

 

You can find many props for your pretend pet vet at your local Dollar Tree store. In my download, I also offer a list of props and materials for you to create your own pet hospital Dramatic play.

Medical props are also great for helping students pretend to take care of animals. Try mixing toy medical props with real medical materials. Items like bandaids, cotton balls, and medical gloves are great for imaginative play. Your students will love using these props on stuffed animals to help them when they’re sick. They can use these props to fix their bones. Check the temperature too. Props are so fun to play with. Don’t forget to use the lab coats too.

 

2. Pet Vet Dramatic Play Decor

Classroom decor is very important for your pretend play area. The goal is to make your area look like a pet hospital. Doing this helps your students become interested in playing the role of veterinarians. Also known as animal doctors.

Place items like props, books, drawings, and pictures of animals all over your pet vet clinic. These items are great for pretend play decor. Another awesome way is to provide a table for your young veterinarians. This is useful for students. They can use it when giving stuffed animals' medicine. Or when performing surgery and taking care of them as patients.

 

Here's another useful idea to make your dramatic play area look and feel like a pet vet clinic. Include an x-ray section. In this section, you can add a small table, a computer screen, and a keyboard. Place x-ray pictures of animals around the section. You can get animal x-ray pics for your classroom too by downloading this product.

 

Another way to add decor to the Dramatic play Veterinarian center is by using a bulletin board. You can use this board to display pet vet related crafts. In my classroom, we displayed x-ray crafts made by my students. they cut pictures of animals and used cotton ball swabs To represent bones. This display board definitely lets students know that this play space is a pet hospital.

 

3. Pet Vet Dramatic Play Signs

Signs are also useful for making your Dramatic play pet vet center. Placing medical-related signs can make your students feel like they are in a pet hospital.

Signs like open and close will let your students know when it’s time to play in this area. It will also help them get familiar with those kinds of sight words. So next time when they see words like that somewhere else, they can read it with ease.

 

This is also great because as teachers you don’t have to be there to let them know when an area is open or closed. The signs confirm it for them. Your students will understand and follow the sign’s directions.

Signs are also useful for pretend play. They help support the imagination needed to play pet vet. For example, Here is a picture of one of my students using an eye chart. She is pretending to check the dog's vision. She is also identifying the letters on the chart. You can find signs like this and more for your students to play with. Go to the Pre-K Let's Play store and download this resource.

 

Signs also encourage writing. For instance, try creating a large sign for scheduling appointments. For the pretend animals. Your students will love this. This sign encourages them to use their imagination as pet owners and patients. And it also supports your students to practice writing their names. This also helps them identify numbers and time, and understand the use of time. The best part of all is that it doesn’t feel like learning. This is all through play.

 

4. Pet Vet Dramatic Play Labels

Labels are another good resource to use. In fact, you should have labels if you want your dramatic play to look like a pet hospital. Labels are very important for children.

For starters, labels help students identify what things are. Your Dramatic play area may have items that children are unfamiliar with. This is an opportunity for them to ask and learn what these items are. As well as its use.

 

Labels help them build their vocabulary. These labels include a picture along with the word. That way they can identify the letters and words. They can associate the letters to the picture. For that reason, your students will also understand the value of reading prints. Not to mention its purpose as well. It’s best to place many labels under your pet vet items. They should be all over your dramatic play. The more labels, the better.

 

Labels also help them know where things belong. When they finish playing, they know exactly where to place the item.  Labels show them. They also encourage kids to keep a Dramatic play clean. That way, students don’t need many reminders from teachers when it comes to organizing. Labels can help with that. This also helps them build a cleaning routine.

5. Role play in Veterinarian Dramatic Play

Kids love acting. It gives them a chance to pretend to be anything they want. That’s why adding role-play into your dramatic play pet hospital is a wonderful idea.

 

Role-play gives students a reason to use their imagination. For this theme, your students can pretend to be pets, veterinarians, or even the owner of pets. Included in this download are role play cards. These cards act as necklaces. Encourage your students to wear these necklaces. It will help them get more into character and pretend to be in a pet hospital.

 

Here is an example of one of my students playing the role of veterinarian. She is pretending to do X-ray research on animals.

 

Role play also helps your students talk. By acting out roles, your students will be improving their language. This is also great for building communication skills. In order for role play to work, your students have to talk to each other. This type of play allows them to use their imagination together. It also encourages them to work as a team and build friendships.

6. Pet Vet Dramatic Play Printouts

Printouts are great resources to add to your pretend pet hospital. They support your students' writing and creativity. For this dramatic play theme, I created pet vet forms. Your students can use these printable forms to help take care of the stuffed animals. This is also great to use while they role play as pet doctors. Your students will love to show their writings to their friends. Especially as they explain the health of the animals to them.

They can also use the printouts to decide what kind of treatment does the animal patient need.

 

Additionally, these Printouts give students a chance to practice writing. This is great for improving fine motor skills. Place writing materials and the printouts throughout your dramatic play. Your students will choose to write on their own.  They’ll have so much fun writing. It won’t feel like learning for them. That’s the best part.

 

7. Download This Pet Vet Dramatic Play Resource

You now have an idea on how to create your own pet vet dramatic play area. Such a cool idea right? However, creating this can be time-consuming. So to save you some time, I created a pet vet dramatic play resource. I got you covered.  You can use this product in your classroom with ease. Right away. All you have to do is download this product at the Pre-K Let's Play store.

This resource comes filled with 125 pages. These pages consist of printables, labels, signs, images to reference to, and so much more. All made and ready for you.

Follow these 3 steps: download, print, and prep. It’s that easy! Your students will enjoy this theme and have so much fun learning through play.

BONUS: Books

Books are awesome. Kids love them. Teachers love them. What’s not to love about them? Books are a bonus tip for this blog post.

Placing lots of books in your play area will definitely help make it look like a pretend pet hospital. All you need are books about animals. You can also include books that talk about the vet. The more books that cover these topics, the better.

 

Make sure you add nonfictional books into your dramatic play as well. These kinds of books are perfect for this theme. They provide real-life information. Not to mention real-life pictures that your students can relate to. Students can learn a lot from reading and looking at nonfiction books.

So here you go! 8 tips to create your own pretend pet vet hospital. Not 7, but 8! Enjoy and don’t forget to download this pet vet dramatic play theme from the Pre-K Let's Play store. Have fun!!!