5 Ways to Use Stuffed Animals in the Classroom

Students LOVE stuffed animals, so why not capitalize on that love in the classroom? I use my stuffed animals to help me teach math, language, and science and help with classroom management. Read on to find out how I do it.  

Meet Ellie!

She is our classroom "pet."  When I started teaching, I would send her home with a student every weekend. She travelled in a brightly colored bag and had a travel journal. Each student would have a turn to take Ellie home for the weekend and then write about their adventures with her. My students loved the chance to take Ellie home. I loved that it allowed them some authentic writing at home. Ellie always visited my house on Mondays to take a bath and ensure she was clean and ready for her next adventure.  

Classroom Management  

Now Ellie has a whole new purpose in my classroom  When my students meet Ellie, they learn that, although she has tiny ears for an elephant, they are very sensitive  She likes it best when everyone is working and using indoor voices  She will often sit at the tables of students who are working well or sit on the laps of kids while listening to a story  A hush falls over the room every time I remind them that Ellie is looking for somewhere to visit  She really motivates my students to stay on task and try their best.

Reading Teaching Tools

Reading Buddies

Over the years, I have collected Beanie Baby-sized stuffed animals to use in my classroom. I have found them in thrift stores and garage sales. I even raided my children's collections. I store all of them in my crate stools. My students love to choose one to read to when we have our read-to-self time. They are very motivated to sit and read with their stuffed buddy.  

Teaching Decoding Strategies

You might be wondering how you can use stuffed animals to teach reading  Well, they are a great hook to help teach decoding strategies  I have one animal for each of our decoding strategies - stretchy snake, chunky monkey etc  When we are working on a strategy, I bring the stuffy to my guided reading table as a visual reminder of the strategy  I have created a set of posters, bookmarks, wands etc. that use the animals to teach decoding strategies  If you would like to check it out click on the picture below or {HERE}.  

Writing Teaching Tools

I often use my animals at the beginning of the year to get my reluctant writers writing. We usually start with lists. My students choose an animal and then list all of the characteristics they notice. Having the animal right in front of them helps them be descriptive. Our animals are almost always the inspiration for non-fiction writing. Students choose their favourite animal to research.  

Manipulatives for Math Lessons

I often use my stuffed animals as manipulatives during math lessons. They are great for making a concrete graph, sorting by various attributes, and solving addition and subtraction problems. Incorporating stuffed animals really gets my students interested in what we are doing. They love to be the person chosen to manipulate the animals during our mini-lessons.  

Science Lessons

Over the years I have been really thoughtful in the animals that I have purchased/acquired  I wanted to make sure most of the animals were accurate reflections of the real animal i.e., no pink horses  As a result, we use our collection a lot to talk about animals in our science units  We have sorted them according to their habitat, their diet, where they live in the world  They have also been a springboard to writing about various animals.

I hope you are inspired to start growing your stuffed animal collection or to incorporate the stuffed animals you have into your lessons. If you found the post helpful, take a moment and pin the image below.