Vet Pretend Play: A Fun Learning Activity For Children

Dramatic Play is the age old beloved play form which all children adore. Be it House play or Teacher play we all have done it. In fact at the time I grew up, it was the most popular play form. I simply loved playing doctor doctor! So while I revisiting my childhood memories, I gave our Doctor play a little twist and made it Veterinarian  Play activity. The reason it is better that the usual doctor play, is that children get to play with animals as well in this set us.

What you need is animal figurines and a doctor set and you and your lo are ready to go. Start by explaining that just like human being animals also fall ill and need to see a doctor. An animal doctor is called a Veterinarian or Vet. Before you start playing it out, it is essential that you discuss some features like fleece, fur, teeth, canines, whickers, eyes, paws with your child. These are the common places a Vet examines. Also, they measure the length on the animals (height) and monitor the weight.

To measure the length, we tool a plain stripe of paper and stamped it with a pom-pom. The number of stamps the animal covers, is the length of the animal. We also enjoyed combing our animals with a tooth brush. You can use any old comb. The way we proceeded is by cuddling our animal and giving it a bath. For bath, I dissolved some baby soap in a tray and added in the figurines. We then gently rubbed them with our hands and their fleece with tooth brush before patting them dry. Now, post bath we discovered that our pet is unusually sleepy and dull. So, we decided to take him to the vet. For acting out the vet part, we made these simple sheets which are easy to use children. If you don’t want to use a print, guide your little one to check the animal’s mouth, fleece, paws, ears etc. It is fun to see how children enact out as Vets and come up with their treatment plan. Don’t be surprised if your lo administers an injection for every element your pet suffers from.

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Also read: 5 Reasons Why You Should Encourage Pretend Play In Children

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