Developing Literacy and Math Skills in the Dramatic Play with a PET STORE

The Pet Store is Open! Megan and I recently set up a pet store in her classroom. This blog post shares how we set it up and what we included!

First up, make the environment print rich.  Think "real" pet store. We added Open and Closed signs to encourage the children to use environmental print in their play.

Next, we set up an office area. This area holds all the "paper" supplies needed for their play. We have desk supplies, picture order forms, blank order forms for children to write out their order, and price tags.

Then, we set up the pet store.  We created labels for tubs to hold the supplies the kids will need. We added tubs for holding name tags, pet supplies, stuffed pets, ads, vet supplies, cards to label the store, and paper for making bedding for the cages.

You need a pay station! This is a favorite!

We also set up an area to hold clothing. We found some aprons at The Dollar Tree. They had a picture on the front, so we just made some Pet Store Tags to hot glue to the front. We added our doctor and nurse dress up clothing along with some general dress up clothing for the "shoppers". We hung the shopping bags on the last hook since this is right next to the cash register.

I picked up these baskets at the Dollar Tree and we have a cart as part of the classroom resources.  These give the "shoppers" somewhere to put their purchases.

And here it is...The Pet Store is ready for play!

The kids were quick to find their "jobs" and dress accordingly.  They found the name tags that indicate the jobs they have chosen.

They began their play by sorting the animals into the cages. My friend Jamie Hubbard shared this fabulous cage idea. I connected 4 together and stood them up.  I used zip ties to hold together locker shelves. I connected 4 more together, put them on their side, and slid them into the 4 standing.  I then used more zip ties to connect them! The kids love them!

Then, the kids used the pet labels to label each cage.

Next, they sorted the pet supplies and gave each item a price.

Now, it's time to shop. The kids filled out order forms of what they wanted to purchase.

Then, they used the order form to collect the items into one of the baskets.

And now time to pay and put the items into one of the brown bags.

We also included medical items so that the children could role play veterinarians.

The children completed forms about the check up!

I also included a few activities that would simulate jobs in the pet store. 

One activity was to sort fish into the correct bowls by their color.  You could also use goldfish crackers!

 We also included a pet bone size sorting activity.

 A favorite activity...looking at x-rays of pets and matching them to the correct pet picture.

 The last activity was a STEM Challenge. The kids used toothpicks and playdough to make cages for the small plastic pets.

I loved that they tried different things! 

First, the selected their pet and drew the design for the cage.

Then, they built their cages.

And, last their evaluated if their cage was effective.

They love this center! I can see if staying around for a few weeks! All of the supplies come from this unit:

Dramatic Play Pet Store Unit