Little Learners: How to Incorporate Programming for Our Youngest Animal Lovers
By: Alicia Haley
Education Manager, Animal Welfare Association
When you think of animal shelters, programs for toddlers are not the first thing that comes to mind. With humane educators coming from various backgrounds, the thought of working with toddlers or very young children and animals together can sometimes be a scary concept. It doesn’t have to be, and it is doable!
Childhood is a critical time in one’s developmental stages and is an important time to be able to teach young children about positive relationships with animals, which has been shown to positively influence their interactions with other people. We also know that many households have both pets and children, making this a common combination. Working in the animal welfare industry, we see the unfortunate reality of what can happen when children who do not know how to properly interact with animals share space with their pets. Creating programs for youth as young as age two begins to build a foundation for safe and appropriate interactions with animals, while also growing childrens’ social, emotional, behavioral, fine and gross motor skills that are so critical at these ages.
The Animal Welfare Association has established two important and well-received programs for young animal lovers. These include Wags & Wiggles for ages 2-4 and Pawsitive Kids Club for ages 5-7.
Wags & Wiggles was the initial program, with a goal of teaching children positive animal interactions and animal safety in a fun and hands-on class. This 45-minute long “grownup and me" style class begins with an animal-themed story, moving into an age appropriate craft, followed by a fine motor activity, and then an animal safety lesson where kids understand the safest ways to pet and interact with an animal. The class ends by meeting an animal – usually a kitten, where children can practice the gentle petting they first learned on a stuffed animal. Not only do the children have a blast and learn, it is also an opportunity for the accompanying adult to socialize and bond with the child and incorporate the lessons learned into their everyday life.
Pawsitive Kids Club is a step up from the Wags & Wiggles program, and aims to foster independence and aid in gaining social skills. The format of this program is roughly the same as Wags & Wiggles; beginning with a story, moving into a more challenging craft that works on skills like cutting, followed by a movement activity to work on their gross motor skills before going through an animal safety lesson and having the opportunity to interact with an animal. This is a one-hour class where adults are encouraged to drop off their child or can remain in the back of the class or in the lobby.
These classes are designed to be simple, engaging, fun, and educational. By keeping the same format overall, it is easy to swap out activities, books, and crafts. Following a theme for the class will also help to make things easier overall and provide a focus for the session. Providing stickers or stamps at the end is also a hit with the kids!
Remember, young children have short attention spans! It’s also okay if our littlest learners are upset or not able to sit still, just continue with your program as planned. Always gauge the temperature of the room and determine if you need to wrap up a bit early. Sometimes, that happens, and it’s okay! Adults are grateful to spend time with their little one outside of the house and watch them have fun and explore something new.
To help you get started, here is a list of books, activities, and crafts that the Animal Welfare Association has used during previous classes. Some of the stories we read are for fun, while others have a true educational component to them.
Wags & Wiggles Books: Slightly longer board books are great. Mix them up and find fun ones for the holidays or seasons. Some we’ve used are:
“Tails Are Not for Pulling”
“If You Give a Dog a Donut”
“Love Me Gently”
“Oliver and Max”
“Can I be Your Dog?”
Wags & Wiggles Crafts: Try to match the craft to the book or the overall theme/animal discussed in the book or make it a seasonal/holiday craft with an animal connection. Cutting pieces out ahead of time for more involved crafts is best so the kids just have to glue them on and maybe do some coloring. Pinterest is your best friend for finding craft ideas!
Wags & Wiggles Activities: These are all some sort of fine motor activity and may involve counting or color recognition, as well as working on skills like grasping and the pincer grip.
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“Pin the whiskers on the cat”: Kids use clothespins and must pin the correct color clothespin to the dot on the cat face. Each child gets about 6-8 cat face cards that are each different so they can practice different patterns and color matching, as well as the skill of pinching open the clothespin and placing it on the cat face.
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Dog-themed color matching game: We made pictures of different colored dog bowls in Canva and printed, laminated, and cut them out. For the activity, each child gets about 6-8 dog bowl cards and a bunch of pom poms. They must find the corresponding pom poms (by matching color) and use the tweezers to put them into the “dog bowls.”
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“Feed the dog”: We made dog face photos in Canva, printed them out, cut out the mouth area, laminated the photos, and then glued them onto small brown takeout boxes (we also use these for rat and rabbit enrichment!). Participants use tweezers to pick up pom poms (the “food”) and have to put them in the dog’s mouth. We also have cards that go along with the activity that say things like “Feed the dog 2 pieces of kibble.” or “Feed the dog 5 pieces of kibble.” so that they can work on their counting as well.
Pawsitive Kids Club Books:
“Hey, Little Ant”
“Giraffes Can’t Dance”
“What’s Up Pup?”
“If You Ever Want to Bring an Alligator to School, Don’t”
Pawsitive Kids Club Crafts:
Pawsitive Kids Club Activities: We try to make these more of a movement activity to get some of their energy out, or an activity that requires more concentration.
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Doggie Obstacle Course: We use things like hula hoops, tunnels, and platforms/jumps (that we borrowed from the behavior department) to create an obstacle course around the room. You could also try things like paw prints on the floor, a balance beam, or even a line of tape on the floor that participants have to walk on.
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“Minute to win it” type games: One we like to play is a “roll up the mouse” game. You tie a piece of string to a pencil and then attach a toy mouse at the end of the string. In this friendly competition, participants hold the pencil and then have to try to roll it as fast as they can until the mouse reaches the pencil.
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Alligator Cornhole: We used craft paper and painted the alligator on that, and then taped it to one of our cornhole boards. Kids love throwing the bean bags in.
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Animal Adaptations craft (pairs well with “Giraffes Can’t Dance”): We changed this slightly and cut out butterflies from the clear transparency film and then taped them around the room to see how they blended in. Kids ran around looking for them and we discussed animal adaptations. We used clear transparency film to cut out butterflies and tape them around the room. The kids were given the task of finding them, which was a great opportunity to discuss camouflage, mimicry, and other animal adaptations.
- Hey, Little Ant fine motor activity: We created our “ant tunnel” from a cardboard box.
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