Enabling environments: Let's explore ... Cats and dogs

The themes of cats, dogs or other pets is one that is highly likely to engage children's interest at some stage during their time at nursery. Their enthusiasm for the subject may develop in response to the interests of an individual child or a group of children, or because of a significant event, such as a new pet at home or in the setting. Of course, the interest may also stem from a child's fear or anxiety about animals - dogs in particular.

By providing stimulating and challenging experiences that promote children's imagination and curiosity, practitioners can extend children's initial interests, sustain enthusiasm and respond to any concerns that the children may have.

In addition to enhancing areas of provision throughout the setting, practitioners may plan to invite family members or members of the wider community to visit the setting with a small animal or pet, so that children have opportunities to find out more about pets.

ANIMALS IN SETTINGS

When planning to bring animals into the early years settings, it is important to think about ways of encouraging children to think about the animals' needs and to develop a sense of care and responsibility towards them.

Of course, there can be few more exciting experiences for young children than to see a kitten or puppy developing into an adult animal over a period of time, but baby animals are very demanding in terms of time, care and attention.

Practitioners who are considering introducing a resident pet into the setting should investigate the matter fully and ensure that arrangements are made for weekends and holidays. Careful planning is necessary and the cost of keeping the animal (including veterinary bills) needs to be calculated, including a decision on how the costs will be met.

SONGS

Support children as they recall favourite songs and rhymes and create their own:

- Suggestions for composing songs:
To the tune of 'Ten Green Bottles':
Five small kittens playing on a wall
Five small kittens playing on a wall
And if one small kitten should accidentally fall ...
Meow!!!!
There'd be four small kittens playing on the wall.
Four small kittens ...
Three small kittens ... and so on

HOME CORNER
Add:
- dog, puppy or kitten soft toy animals
- puppets
- pet carriers
- baskets
- beanbag beds
- bowls
- squeaky toys
- collars and leads
- empty pet food packets
- pet food tins
- fabric 'ears' and tails on elastic
- bone-shaped dog biscuits
Learning opportunities
A growing awareness of the needs of others
Using language to recreate roles and experiences
Showing an understanding of character in stories
Moving in a range of ways
Using imagination in role play

ADULT ROLE

- Observe, and where appropriate, extend children's imaginative role play.

- Model the use of specific resources and act 'in role' as a worried pet owner or keen dog trainer.

- Ask open-ended questions which encourage the use of imaginative and descriptive language.

- Encourage children to add additional resources or use equipment in creative ways to support their play.

CONSTRUCTION AREA
Add:
- lots of empty cardboard boxes of different sizes
- My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes by Eve Sutton and Lynley Dodd
- soft toy cats and puppets
Learning opportunities
Working as part of a group, co-operating and negotiating
Interacting with others, negotiating plans and activities and taking
turns in conversation
Using the mathematical language of size and position
Beginning to talk about the shape of 3D objects
Designing and constructing for a purpose
Showing an awareness of space

ADULT ROLE

- Where appropriate, revisit the book with the children and ensure that they are familiar with it.

- Encourage them to talk about cats they know.

- Introduce and reinforce the language of size and position.

- Support the children's conversations, encouraging them to communicate what they are doing and why.

- Promote children's autonomy through the independent use of materials.

WATER AREA
Add:
- a baby bath, or put hypoallergenic bubble bath in the water tray
- soft toy animals
- towels
- jugs
- sponges, flannels and brushes
Learning opportunities
Displaying high levels of involvement in activities
Using language to recreate roles and experiences
Using the language of size
Showing an awareness of change
Handling objects with increasing skill
Exploring songs and rhymes

ADULT ROLE

- Model the use of key vocabulary - dirty, clean, dry, wet, bath, wash, careful, gentle, towel, brush, comb.

- Ask open-ended questions about what the children are doing and why - how could they dry the 'pets' more quickly? How did the pets get dirty?

- Support the children's conversations, encouraging them to make connections with earlier or home experiences.

- Observe and where appropriate, extend the children's play.

- Promote their autonomy through the independent use of resources.

PROBLEM SOLVING, REASONING AND NUMERACY AREA
Add:
- plastic and soft toy dogs
- feeding bowls
- dog biscuit bowls
- wicker basket of assorted dog biscuits
Learning opportunities
Showing care and concern for others
Initiating conversations
- In practical activities, beginning to use the vocabulary that is
involved in adding and subtracting
Making connections between the small-world provision and events in their
own lives and those of familiar others
Expressing creativity through imaginative play

ADULT ROLE

- Encourage the children to explore the resources.

- Ask questions that extend children's play and encourages them to make up games and develop rules for games they have devised.

- Promote the children's discussions about their own dogs at home and what they like to eat.

BOOK AREA
Add:
- assorted fiction and information texts about cats and dogs
- small-world cats and dogs
- laminated images of dogs and cats, made into magnetic props, card,
markers and magnetic tape
Learning opportunities
Working together as part of a group
Exploring books
- Sorting animals by size
Using imagination in stories

ADULT ROLE

- Share books with individuals and pairs of children.

- Model the use of information texts and the language of stories.

- Support the children as they retell familiar stories and create their own.

- Encourage them to make their own story props.

- Ask questions about what they are doing and why

- Support them as they sort and order the pets.

CREATIVE WORKSHOP
Add:
- assorted pictures of cats, dogs and other pets
- pet accessory catalogues
- strips of cards
- markers
- assorted collage materials, including fake fur, glue sticks and glue
- stuffed toys
- real cat and dog collars
- posters of cats and dogs wearing collars
Learning opportunities
Persisting at an activity of own choosing
Initiating conversations and takes account of what others say
- Using shapes for tasks
Manipulating materials to achieve a planned effect
Exploring colour and texture in two dimensions

ADULT ROLE

- Model the use of key vocabulary - glittery, shiny, sparkling, shimmering, dazzling, gleaming, metallic, sequins.

- Encourage the children to explore the materials.

- Support the children as they talk about pets they have a home.

- Encourage the children as they draw, paint or make collages of animals.

- Support the children as they design and make collars for the 'pets'.

OUTDOOR AREA

As always, it's really important that outdoor play isn't simply a repetition of what goes on indoors. In general, it should extend and complement learning indoors and offer opportunities for children to work in a larger, noisier, messier or more physical way, or to utilise natural resources and the weather.

Play that encourages the development of gross skills can be promoted by extending the use of small apparatus and equipment.

If cat and dog ears and tails are added to role-play resources outdoors, children may choose to explore ways of moving like animals.

Add:

- beanbags and large targets in the shape of dog or cat faces - paint these on to external plyboard or heavy-duty corrugated card, and cut out holes for the mouths which children can aim at

- Consider adding clipboards or flip charts so that children can record scores

Learning opportunities
Co-operating and collaborating
Using an increasingly wide vocabulary
- Counting and calculating
- Writing numerals
Using small apparatus with increasing skill
Adult role
- Support the children as they explore ways of throwing bean bags.
- Encourage them to estimate how many beanbags will hit the target.
- Model the formation of numerals.
- Encourage the children to discuss and tally scores.

RESOURCE BOX

Collecting role-play resource boxes around predictable early childhood interests ensures that practitioners are well equipped to respond when children show an interest for a particular topic.

Such resource boxes can be added to as new items become available. It's always a good idea to have a list of the resources in the box, originals, where they came from, and a reference to anything stored on a computer - for example, writing frameworks.

To support children's interest in cats, dogs and other pets, perhaps through animal rescue or veterinary role play, consider providing:

- a collection of soft toy pets and puppets

- assorted pet baskets, bean bags and beds

- assorted cages, fish tanks

- images of pets, posters, storybooks and information texts about domesticated animals (see Book Box, page 22)

- leaflets and booklets from veterinary surgeries

- doctor, nurse and vets clothes

- empty, cleaned pet food boxes or cans

- pet toys, brushes, food bowls

- first-aid boxes and bandages

- appointment book, calendar, diaries, appointment cards, accident report card, prescription formats.

exploring children's Interests

Tuning in

Making time to talk to parents and carers is an important way of finding out about children's current interests and about what matters to them. Such information helps practitioners provide a curriculum that is both relevant and meaningful.

Having an existing interest in a particular theme means that children approach it with enthusiasm and expertise, giving them confidence and increased motivation to engage in the activities provided. Children can use this expertise best in carefully planned, open-ended learning opportunities without prescribed uniform outcomes.

Enhancing provision

Any significant interest that a child or children may have should be explored by enhancing a setting's continuous provision - that is, by adding theme-based resources to the areas of provision that are available daily to children and should comprise:

- role play
- small-world play
- construction play
- sand and water
- malleable materials
- creative workshop area
- graphics area
- book area.

By taking this approach, children can choose to engage with the theme, or pursue their own interests and learning independently. Adults need to recognise that children require a suitable length of time to explore any interests in depth and to develop their own ideas.

ADULT ROLE

If children's interests are to be used to create the best possible learning opportunities, the adult role is crucial.

Adults need to be able to:

- enhance continuous provision to reflect the interests of children.

- use enhancements to plan meaningful learning opportunities across all areas of the EYFS.

- know when to intervene in children's play - and when to stand back.

- recognise that children will need a suitable length of time to explore any area of provision to develop their own ideas.

- model skills, language and behaviours.

- recognise how observation, assessment and reflection on children's play can enhance adults' understanding of what young children know and realise how these should inform their future planning.

Areas of learning
Personal, social and emotional development
Communication, language and literacy
Problem-solving, reasoning and numeracy
Knowledge and understanding of the world
Physical development
Creative development

BOOK BOX

There are some great storybooks and information texts available about cats, dogs and other pets. Remember to use the local library and encourage families and members of the local community to share books:

My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes by Eve Sutton and Lynley Dodd (Puffin Books) Lots of cats all around the world do exciting things like fly aeroplanes or play the violin - but 'my' cat, an ordinary round-the-house cat, likes to hide in boxes. Wonderful fun rhymes and endearing stereotypes of cats of different nationalities.

Six Dinner Sid by Inga Moore (Hodder Children's Books) Sid has six owners, lives in six houses and has six dinners a day. He has wrapped everybody round his little paw. Each owner believes that Sid belongs to them only ... until the day he is found out!

Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell (Campbell Books) What kind of pet would you like from the zoo? An elephant, a lion, a snake - or something a bit smaller, and cuddlier and playful? Lift the flaps and see what has been sent. A perennial favourite.

The Great Pet Sale by Mick Inkpen (Hodder Children's Books) The sign in the pet shop window says 'Everything must go'. 'Everything' refers to an incredible assortment of animals, from tiny terrapin at two pence each to a great big dragon for 25 pence. A humorous and wonderful counting book.

Mog the Forgetful Cat by Judith Kerr (HarperCollins) Mog always seems to be in trouble because she is such a very forgetful cat. She forgets that she has a

cat flap in the door and she forgets when she has already eaten her supper. But, one night, when an uninvited visitor turns up at the house, Mog's forgetfulness comes in very handy!

Slinky Malinki by Lynley Dodd (Puffin Books) Slinky Malinki steals anything from a clothes peg, to a slipper, to a string of sausages, to a clock. Our hero is a bad, bad cat. The story is told in rhyme and through lively pictures.

Joe's Dog written by Angela Joy and illustrated by Nicola Slater (Little Tiger Press) Joe wants a dog - but not just any dog. He's already seen the dog he wants, and when he finally tracks him down, it is easy to see why. Great rhythmic text.

Hairy MacLary: Five Lynley Dodd stories (Viking Children's Books) Five stories featuring the ever popular and mischievous little black dog.

I Want a Pet by Lauren Child (Frances Lincoln) Grandad says that sheep are forever following you around; Dad says that wolves give him a headache; and Mum says she'll cancel teatime if bats in the wardrobe are mentioned again. So, the little boy tries to find a pet none of his family will mind.

Non-fiction

Kittens and Puppies (Touch-Feel-Hear, Hinkler Books)

Pets by Claire Watts (A First Look at Animals series, Two-Can Publishing)

Pets by Nicola Deschamps (Touch and Feel, Dorling Kindersley).