Singalong Saturdays: House Full of Pets!

There are so many things to learn in Hot Toast Music Co.’s songs each week. Let’s learn together and make discoveries! Each week’s Singalong Saturdays will include ways to connect ideas in the songs to fun at-home activities you can do together as a family. Simple activities are multidisciplinary and appropriate for a wide variety of learners. They include storytime, artmaking, science explorations, film suggestions, discussion prompts, and more!

This week’s song is inspired by the very first work of art that Philbrook received many, many years ago. Can you guess it? They’re the Great Danes you see standing tall on our upper level! But our pets don’t stop there. It’s impossible to forget our two cute, furry, and very much alive garden cats: Cleome and Perilla. We’ve got a “Houseful of Pets!”

Storytime!

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Play Along: Houseful of Pets

Step One: Watch the song, and sing along!

Try this Next!

Join Ms. Jenny and read The Cat Who Got Framed by Katie Turner (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAbzOfnQFC8)

Take a Look!

Watch the Sesame Street crew find a pet! This is a full-length episode. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbY2Pjyg5CE)

Check out this adorable Pixar short called Kitbull featuring the unlikely friendship between a kitten and a pitbull. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZS5cgybKcI)

Talk about it!

We all love our pets! They bring so much joy, happiness, and fun to our everyday life. They teach us responsibility and love us back unconditionally. Here are a few questions to think about when talking about your pet (or pets you would like to have)?

1. What do you enjoy doing with your pet every day? Do you go for walks, play with toys or share treats together?
2. What is an emotion that your pet brings to your family every day?
3. What are some other kinds of animals that you would love to have as a pet in the future?

Creative Challenges: We Love Our Pets

Pet Personality Portraits

We take so many photos of our pets, but how often do you paint their portrait? For this creative challenge imagine your pet’s personality and paint it in the colors that best represent him/her. Don’t stick to boring ol’ brown when your feisty pup is loud and fun like the color orange! What color is your pet’s personality? And don’t worry about it looking just like your pet- each artist has their own personal style! Abstract, cartoon, whatever, your pet will love it because they love YOU!

What you will need:

• Pencil
• Paper
• Paint
• Water and Paintbrush
• Sharpie / Permanent Marker

Steps:

1. Start with pencil by outlining your pet. Let’s only focus on drawing the front profile of your pet, like you are looking at them straight in the face. Draw their eyes and face features so you can paint those in.  Keep it simple, more details can be added later.
2. Next, select the color you want to use. Try picking colors that represent your pet, rather the color of their fur. Maybe your dog is kind and gentle, and you use blue!
3. Begin painting in the form you created with a pencil. Feel free to change up the color for different parts of your pet.
4. After you love the color of your animal, create a design in the background with paint. Maybe flowers, or stripes, or stars!
5. After the painting dries, outline everything with permanent marker. This will make your pet stand out, and bring your portrait to life!

Monster Mash-Up

For this creative challenge, use your imagination to create a brand-new species of animal that the world has never seen! What does it do? Where does it live? What sound does it make? What is its name?

What you will need:

• Paper
• Drawing Tools
• Your Imagination

Steps:

1. First, think of all your favorite animals, whether they live in the park, your house/backyard, the zoo, or across the world. What are some different parts that animals need? A head? Eyes? Ears? A way to get around? A way to defend itself? If you were going to create a new animal which parts would you include? 
2. Think of ways you could customize your creature by changing its texture, color, size, shape, etc.
3. After you have imagined every detail of your fantastic new creature, give it a name and a story. Where does it live? What does it eat? Grab your piece of paper and get drawing. 
4. When you finish your incredible creature, show it off to your friends and family! Share every detail about your animal; they’ll want to hear all about this brand-new, never before seen animal. They might even have questions for you, the zoologist, to answer!

Download Activity Guide