Kids love to play with puppets, and creating pet puppets from everyday household items is even more fun. Have children decorate socks or paper bags with wiggle eyes, chenille stems, felt and fabric scraps to look like their favorite dog, cat, mouse or other pet. If the children are very young, cut the pieces of felt and fabric before starting the project to save time and prevent frustration.
Make animal masks with paper plates and construction paper. Cut eye holes from the center of the plate, and have children decorate the plate with ears and whiskers to resemble their cat or dog. Or, instead of a mask, make a 3-D dog or cat from a paper bowl. Turn the bowl over, and add eyes, ears, whiskers and a mouth to the bowl. Children can personalize their new pets however they wish. Animal ear headbands are another wearable art project. Supply plain plastic headbands, available at most craft and hobby retailers, and let the children add their own animal ears to the headband.
Children can create custom pets by recycling small household objects, such as empty spools of thread, plastic containers, small hardware items, rocks and wire. Collect random objects into a box, and allow kids to use their creativity to build a sculpture with the items. This project is best for older children who no longer put small items into their mouths. Even older children may need help using the heavy-duty adhesive to hold the items together; rubber cement works well for this type of project. For younger children, provide a selection of shapes precut from a variety of papers, and have them create their own pet pictures.
Not all pets are of the four-legged variety, and art projects can feature other types of animals, such as fish or birds. Create a floating undersea world with 3-D fish. For each fish, cut two fish-shaped pieces of construction paper or cardstock. Have the children decorate their fish however they'd like, using paper shapes, glitter, markers or even by gluing pasta or cereal to the fish. When the fish decorations dry, glue the two fish shapes together on three sides, and stuff with newspaper after the glue dries. Glue the fourth side together, and hang the fish from the ceiling using string or fishing line. You can create a flock of birds flying through the room using this same technique.