Love Your Pet Day | EYFS & KS1 Activity Ideas

**Note: This page is for educational inspiration and is not officially affiliated with Love Your Pet Day. For general information on pet care and animal welfare, you can consult reputable animal welfare organisations or veterinary associations.

Understanding Love Your Pet Day in EYFS & KS1

Let's show our furry (or scaly, or feathered!) friends how much we care! ❤️🐾 Love Your Pet Day is an informal observance, typically celebrated annually on February 20th. While its precise origins aren't widely known, it's a special day dedicated to encouraging pet owners and animal lovers to shower their animal companions with extra affection, appreciation, and care. It serves as a wonderful reminder of the immense joy, unconditional companionship, and positive impact that pets have on our lives, while also highlighting the important responsibilities that come with pet ownership, such as providing proper food, shelter, exercise, and veterinary care.

For early years settings, nurseries, preschools, childminders, and Year 1 and Year 2 classrooms, this day provides a fantastic and relatable theme for exploring animals (specifically pets), caring for living things, responsibility, empathy, understanding the world, and personal, social & emotional development. It's about nurturing children's natural curiosity about animals, teaching them about the needs of different pets, and fostering a sense of compassion towards all living creatures. This day offers wonderful planning ideas and inspiration for engaging activities that truly resonate with young minds, making learning about animal welfare and responsible pet ownership both engaging and meaningful.

Why Is Teaching About Pets & Animal Care Important for Young Children?

Integrating lessons about pets and animal care into your practice with young children (aged 0-7) is incredibly important for fostering empathy, teaching responsibility, and developing an understanding of the needs of living things.

• Fosters Empathy & Compassion: Helps children understand that animals have feelings and needs, promoting kindness towards all living creatures.

• Teaches Responsibility: Introduces the concept of caring for another being, including feeding, walking, and ensuring safety.

• Understanding Life Cycles & Needs: Provides a concrete example of living things, their basic requirements (food, water, shelter), and how they grow.

• Emotional Development: Pets can be a source of comfort and joy, and learning about them can help children process emotions.

• Observation Skills: Encourages children to observe animal behaviours and characteristics.

• Language & Literacy Development: Introduces new vocabulary related to animals and pet care.

• Connection to the World: Broadens children's understanding of the diverse animal kingdom and their place within it.

Engaging Pet & Animal Care Activities for Love Your Pet Day (0-7 Year Olds)

Make Love Your Pet Day a truly appreciative and educational experience with these planning ideas and activities perfect for EYFS and KS1 children. The focus is on learning about different pets, their needs, and how to show them love! Many of these early years and year 1 activities can be supported by our 'Pet' and 'Animal' themed resources.

Here's some inspiration for celebrating our beloved pets in your setting: (Please use your own discretion and knowledge of your children to ensure appropriateness of each activity and safety concerning any materials given and activity undertaken.)

• Talk About Pets: Begin by discussing pets children have or would like to have. Use 'Pets Word Mat' and 'Pet Word Cards' to introduce pet-related vocabulary.

• Veterinary Surgery Role Play: Set up a 'Veterinary Surgery' role-play area to explore caring for poorly pets. Our 'Veterinary Surgery Role-Play Pack' provides everything you need.

• What Do Pets Need? Discuss the needs of different pets. Use 'What Does A Cat Need?' Poster', 'What Does A Cat Need?' Game', 'What Does A Dog Need?' Poster' and 'What Does A Dog Need?' Game' to highlight specific pet care.

• Draw Your Pet: Encourage children to draw or mark-make about their own pets (or a pet they wish for). Use 'Pets - 'My Pet Can' Drawing/Writing/Mark Making Sheets' or 'Pets - 'My Pet Spider Can' Drawing/Writing/Mark Making Sheets' for creative expression. Also, 'Draw A Pet Sheets' is great for this.

• Pet-Themed Colouring: Provide 'Pets Colouring' for a relaxing art activity.

• Pet-Themed Numeracy:

  • Use 'Pets Number Multimats - Playdough, Whiteboard & Pen Or Loose Parts' and 'Animal Number Multimats - Playdough, Whiteboard & Pen Or Loose Parts' for counting and number recognition.

  • Integrate fine motor skills with counting using 'Feed The Cat Pencil Control Mats', 'Feed The Dog Pencil Control Mats', 'Feed The Cat Pencil Control Sheets', 'Feed The Dog Pencil Control Sheets', and 'Feed The Rabbit Playdough Counting Mats'.

• Pet Fact Exploration: Share interesting facts about various pets using 'Pets Fact Cards'.

• Pet Puzzles & Games: Engage children with puzzles like 'Pets 2-Piece Puzzles' and 'Pets 2-Piece Puzzles - Colouring'. Play 'Pet Descriptions Game'.

• Animal Songs: Sing popular animal songs. Use 'Sleeping Bunnies’ resources, 'Pussycat Pussycat’ resources and Bingo’ resources.

• Animal Alphabet & Phonics: Integrate literacy with animal themes using 'Animal Alphabet Horizontal Flashcards/Posters - Upper & Lower Case', 'Animal Alphabet/Initial Sound Puzzles', 'Animal Initial Sound Match Game', and 'Animal Alphabet Multimats - Playdough, Whiteboard & Pen Or Loose Parts'.

• Organise Your Pet Area: Set up a 'pet corner' display using 'Our Pets' Banner' and 'Pet Monitor' Organisation Set'.

• Planning Support: Utilise our 'Planning - Topic Plan Ideas - Animals' and 'Planning - Topic Plan Ideas - Pets' for structuring your learning.

• Explore More: Please visit our ‘Pets’ page to browse our entire collection of educational materials on this theme.

These activities offer great inspiration for making Love Your Pet Day a memorable and impactful experience in your early years and Key Stage One setting, fostering empathy for animals, responsibility, understanding animal needs, and a genuine love for living creatures.

To explore ideas surrounding additional early years events, please visit our 'Special Dates Calendar' page.

Printable resources to support teaching & learning surrounding: ‘Love Your Pet Day’

Free ‘Pet’ activities for EYFS & KS1:

Inspirational ‘Pet’ activities for EYFS & KS1:

‘Animal’ packs that contain activities for learning about ‘Pets’ | EYFS & KS1:

Additional Pages you may like to explore which cover relevant &/or Connected themes

More Early Years Event Pages for February

Explore special dates (including awareness dates, festivals, celebrations & events) relevant to your EYFS & KS1 children

Browse our ‘Special Dates Calendar’ page using the link below. You’ll find calendars for every month of the year to aid your planning!

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Disclaimer:
This page is for educational purposes only and is intended to support early years and primary practitioners with ideas and resources related to 'Love Your Pet Day'. We are not officially affiliated with or endorsed by any specific organisation that may officially promote this informal observance. We do not claim any rights to specific trademarks or official materials associated with this event. For general information on pet care and animal welfare, you can consult reputable animal welfare organisations or veterinary associations.