Dogs' National Day Activities for Preschoolers -

Dog’s National Day Activities for Preschoolers

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National Dog Day is a worldwide-recognized holiday celebrated on August 26th every year. Colleen Paige established it in 2004 to raise awareness about adopting these great human companions, no matter the breed.

The pandemic has brought more adoptions, and shelters aren’t as full as before, but many dogs still need help, and some shelters have deadlines and policies to euthanize animals that aren’t adopted within a certain period.

As an animal lover and defender, and having to rescue multiple dogs, it is my duty (I feel) to try to encourage people to adopt instead of buying puppies, especially since there are hundreds of puppy mills out there that don’t care for these animals and have them in horrible conditions.

Ways to Celebrate Dogs National Day

There are many things you can do privately to celebrate Dogs National Day, but I want to share some ideas for celebrating this day with your preschoolers in an easy, fun, and educational way to start building awareness about these great companions.

Some things you can do are:

1. Invite a Service Dog to School

This is an excellent way to show your students that some dogs have extremely important jobs, such as helping people with disabilities become more independent, detecting drugs and explosives, capturing criminals, and finding lost children, among others. If you don’t know anyone with a service dog, you can contact your local training school or the police department K-9 unit and invite them to your classroom to talk to the children about their work.

2. Visit an Animal Shelter or a Pet Store

This could be a great field trip for your kiddos since they can see personally what’s going on in these places. If you are not allowed to have field trips, you can ask the parents to bring their children to one of these places and take pictures. Later, they can come back to class, share their pictures, and talk about what they saw and experienced.

3. Do a Fundraising for a Local Shelter

I did this activity last year at my school, and it was incredible! I chose a specific shelter and researched cats and dogs up for adoption at the time. I printed out different pictures, and each classroom “adopted” some of these animals. Over two weeks, children and parents started bringing donations for the shelter. I was surprised by how many donations we got. At the end of the period, we celebrated with an ice cream party for the children, and I brought the donations to the shelter with a giant homemade card. It was great!

4. Teach the Dog’s Body Parts

This simple science activity doesn’t have to be complicated, because you only need to include the main body parts.

Present a picture of a dog, and point at its main body parts: tail, ears, eyes, legs, mouth, nose, and paws. Explain the function of each part. Then you can give them an activity to cut and paste the body parts in the right place, or use it as a matching game.

I’ve created a FREE printable that you can use for this purpose. It includes three sheets: one with a picture of a Labrador with its body parts, another with the same photo without the names of its body parts, and a third with the body parts only. If you want to reuse it multiple times, print the first two on white cardstock and laminate them or place them in a dry-erase pocket to protect them. Laminate the body parts.

You can access this game by clicking the link below.

Dog's Body Parts Activity — Dog’s Body Parts Activity

5. Learning the Letter Dd is for Dog

This celebration is a good opportunity to strengthen the children’s language, letter recognition, pre-writing, and fine motor skills. To do that, you can:

Teach or review the letter Dd’s sound, name, and tracing.
Spell the word dog.
Match each letter of the word with magnetic letters.
Copy the letter and word with pencils, crayons, or markers.

I’ve included two FREE sheets to trace the Dd, in both uppercase and lowercase, plus the word dog. One sheet has shadow letters, and the other has dotted-line letters.

As usual, if you want to reuse the activity, print it out on white cardstock or place it in a dry-erase pocket, and invite the children to use dry-erase markers to trace the letters and words. You can get it by clicking on the link below.

6. Dot-to-Dot Letter Dd Activity

Once your preschoolers recognize the letter Dd, you can use this literacy activity to encourage them to identify Dd among other letters. To make it fun, provide them with paper with multiple letters and a dot-to-dot marker. Instruct the children to use the marker to mark the spot where they find the letter Dd.

I’ve created a FREE page for this activity. Just click the link below to get it.

7. Dog’s ABC Maze

This is another literacy activity where children review the alphabet using manipulatives such as a dot-to-dot marker, buttons, bingo chips, or mini erasers to mark each letter in the correct order and help the doggies get their treats. Encourage them to say the letter names as they go.

I’ve created two FREE sheets for the activity, one with capital letters and the other one with lowercase letters. You can get them with the rest of the printables by clicking on the link below.

8. Counting Dogs Activity

This fun and simple math activity is excellent to help your students develop different skills:

Recognizing the numbers 1 to 10.
Counting.
One-to-one correspondence.
Tracing lines (fine motor skills).

I’ve included two FREE sheets with the numbers 1 to 10. Children need to identify and name each number and trace it. Then count each line of dogs, match the amount to the correct number, and trace a line between the number and the correct amount of dogs.

If you want to reuse this activity multiple times, print it on white cardstock and laminate it or place it inside a dry-erase pocket and have the children use a dry-erase marker.

You can get this free resource by clicking on the link below.

9. Estimating, Counting, and Sorting Dog Treats

To make math fun and different, grab a box of colorful dog treats and have the children estimate how many treats are in the box or jar, count them, and sort them by color, shape, or both, depending on the treats you get.

10. Write a Class Story About a Dog to Make a Book

During circle time, invite your children to create a story, reminding them that it needs a beginning, middle, and end. Use chart paper to take dictation.

You can encourage them by starting with something like “There was a dog named…” or something like that.

When the story is finished, print it out and have students illustrate it. Put it together as a book for the library, and make a copy for each author.

Books About Dogs

You can always add books about dogs and other animals to your library and other centers to give children a wide learning experience and variety to choose from. I’m sure the previous activities will spice up their curiosity, and these books could be an excellent source of knowledge.

Below are some I like. You can find them at our local library, used bookstore, and on Amazon. Clicking on the titles will take you to the right page through my affiliate link.

Can I Be Your Dog? by Troy Cummings. Troy Cummings’s hilarious and touching story is a perfect gift for a child wanting a dog and for pet adoption advocates. It also showcases many different styles of letter writing, making it appealing to parents and teachers looking to teach the lost art of written communication.

National Geographic Kids Everything Dogs: All the Canine Facts, Photos, and Fun You Can Get Your Paws On! by Becky Baines. Kids will learn about the characteristics that define dogs, their daily lives, and the different breeds, and it is packed with fun facts, amazing photographs, and cool, interactive activities.

Dog’s Colorful Day: A Messy Story About Colors and Counting by Emma Dodd. Dog starts the day with one black spot on his ear. But it seems that wherever he goes, he runs, rolls, and trots right into colors. As he wanders around town, Dog collects ten different colored spots.

A Dog’s Best Friends: Shog, Lilly Frog, and Piggle in… by Lissette Star. Combining wonderfully vibrant illustrations with the power of rhythm and rhyme, this is a perfect story to teach about friendship, racism, prejudice, and diversity.

The Everything Book of Dogs and Puppies by DK. Packed with wonderful pictures and adorable dog and puppy facts, this book teaches what dogs are showing with their body language, what they are dreaming about, what they are trying to say to you, the individual features of different breeds, and how to take the best care of them.

All About Dogs and Puppies by Laura Driscoll. Illustrated with full-color photographs, this book teaches the reader all about different breeds.

Please Don’t Tell My Human! by Erica L. Clymer. The story has children laughing out loud while learning about the power of kindness.

Biscuit Visits the Doctor by Alyssa Satin Capucilli. Going to the doctor can be scary, but this story teaches young readers that a doctor visit is another opportunity for fun and learning!

It is important to encourage in our children the love for nature and everything it has to offer. It is really sad and breaks my heart to see beautiful creatures disappearing from this world, and the risk that our children and the children of our children will never get to see animals that have become and will become extinct.

It is our responsibility to teach our children that the titanic effort some people are making to protect nature could be multiplied if we all contribute a little “grain of sand.” Use this week, and every opportunity you have, to raise awareness with your children and help them become advocates for the future of all species.

Be happy, safe, and creative. I wish you well.

Love,

P.S. Please let me know if you like any of these ideas, if they worked for you, or if you think I need to add or replace something. My goal is to help you in any way I can, and I don’t like anything better than to post something that you might find useful. Also, if you have different ideas and want to share them, I would love to post them too.