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March 5, 2013 | 6 Comments

Pet or Wild Animal Sorting Activity

Sorting is a common preschool activity that you may notice your child doing all on their own. Sorting helps make sense of the world. But it’s also a great way to talk about attributes and differences in the items you are sorting. In this animal sorting activity of pets vs. wild animals, it gave us a chance to talk about how we care for pets and observe local wildlife.  It wasn’t super simple for a 2.5-year-old. But when we hit road bumps a few questions lead to the final decision.  After sorting we played and played and played which is exactly what I’d hoped for.

house pet or wild animal sorting activity no time for flash cards

  1. Gather your materials. You will need a doll house (or a picture of a house), some animals and if you want a basket and container to represent the wild. We used a square vase and some pine cones it doesn’t have to be perfect just enough to be separate from the house pets. Make sure that you have some animals that are clearly pets and others that are clearly wild animals and if you think it won’t frustrate your child add in a few iffy ones. Our iffy ones were the budgie, lizard, and turtle.  house pet or wild animal
  2. Place the house, animals and “wild” on a table and invite your wee one to start sorting. Let them know that all the animals need to be put in their home either in the house or wild. house pet
  3. Help them sort if need be.house pet 3 My daughter took great care in placing each pet in the right spot. house pets in the houseWhen she got to the lizard she was not sure. house pet or wild animal 3Eventually, she decided that it should be in the wild. You and I know that people have lizards as pets but I wasn’t going to go into that if she decided it shouldn’t. Don’t get hung up on this technicality on the less obvious animals if it breaks the flow of the game but if your child will understand explain exotic pets and let them decide if they think they should or should not be pets. house pet or wild animal 8
  4. After all the sorting is done you can count the animals. Then ask your child to pick which pet they would like to have in their own house and to pick out the wild animals that they have seen around their neighborhood/zoo/aquarium. house pet or wild animal 44
  5. Then play! Can you tell she is potty training right now? We played and played mostly potty training each of the house pets. If only it were that easy! house pets play potty training

Books About Pets

not norman

Not Norman: A Goldfish Story by Kelly Bennet is a story about a little boy and his disappointing pet fish Norman. All great children’s books slip a lesson between the pages. This one is about how our first impressions aren’t always right. Friendships can take a while to grow. But once they do they are solid, even with a pet fish named Norman.

My Penquin Osbert

My Penguin Osbert by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel is a perfect book for this activity. In this story, a little boy writes to Santa and asks for a very specific gift, a real live penguin! It’s not long before he realizes that a real live penguin is not as much fun as he thought it would be. He is very responsible though and sacrifices a lot for Osbert. He is thankful to Santa for getting his gift exactly right. But writes a follow-up letter explaining how it would be ok if Santa sent a replacement. Very cute story, it’s not short though but my 3-year-old listened to it happily for a bedtime story. Laughing at the funny parts and pointing out that he wrote a letter to Santa too. But he didn’t ask for a penguin… thank goodness!

McDuff Moves in

McDuff Moves In by Rosemary Wells will pull at your heart strings and make your child beg for a dog!  McDuff escapes from a dog catcher’s truck and tried to brave the world alone. But he only meets unfriendly animals until he meets Fred and Lucy! They take him in initially just for one night…but who can resist this Westie? My son loves this series of books and I do too. They are calm, sweet and I love the illustrations by Susan Jeffers.

For more fun sorting activities, make sure to follow me on Facebook!

For more quick tips on helping your child learn to read check out my book; Raising A Rock-Star Reader. It is packed with fun ideas for families, book lists, and advice for parents.

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Filed Under: Age Preschool, Age: Toddlers, Animal Activities, Pets, Preschool Activities, Sorting | 6 Comments

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6 Comments

  1. Aarushi says

    March 5, 2013 at 7:44 am

    You always inspire me to do all kinds of diff activities with my daughter.thankyou so much for all the ideas.i would love to know where i can get these animal figures? Have been wanting to get these for some time now.

    to Aarushi" aria-label='reply to this comment to Aarushi'>reply to this comment
    • admin says

      March 5, 2013 at 7:54 am

      We have gathered them over the years but most of the pet ones are from this Safari Ltd Pets Toob
      and the arctic animals are from Safari’s arctic toob.

      to admin" aria-label='reply to this comment to admin'>reply to this comment
  2. Aarushi says

    March 5, 2013 at 10:35 am

    Thankyou..I will buy some for my daughter:)

    to Aarushi" aria-label='reply to this comment to Aarushi'>reply to this comment
  3. Sara M says

    March 5, 2013 at 1:52 pm

    I cannot tell you how cool I think your website is! Or, just did…he he. I adore this activity and plan to do it with my daughter. Thank you for sharing all of your amazing and creative ideas with moms like me. 🙂

    to Sara M" aria-label='reply to this comment to Sara M'>reply to this comment
  4. Marianne Hopwood says

    March 6, 2013 at 2:49 pm

    Thanks – I will definitely be doing this activity with my three year old. We have a lovely big box of animals donated from a friend and I’ve been looking for ways to make the most of them 🙂

    to Marianne Hopwood" aria-label='reply to this comment to Marianne Hopwood'>reply to this comment
  5. Abby says

    March 7, 2013 at 6:46 am

    This is a really good idea! I am teaching my preschoolers about living and nonliving things. I didn’t think about sorting them according to habitat. I will have to try this with them next week.

    to Abby" aria-label='reply to this comment to Abby'>reply to this comment

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