What's Missing with Pets

This Kindergarten worksheet asks: what is missing from the picture? A picture of pets has one piece cut out, leaving a gap, and the child finds the piece that completes it from a set of choices. Working out which piece fills the gap — imagining the a cat, a dog and a rabbit whole again to see what belongs there — is whole-and-absence practice, a readiness skill, with nothing to read or count.

Finding what is gone asks a child to imagine a picture as it should be, then spot the part that is absent. Holding the whole image in mind and recognising the gap is early inference — reasoning from what is present to what is missing — and a pets picture keeps it hands-on. The child pictures the complete image, finds the gap, and chooses the piece that makes it whole again.

Children love finding the piece that makes a picture whole again, and completing the puzzle feels satisfying. When this is easy, find the missing piece in what's missing with post office, or try what's missing with summer. You can also browse every missing-piece puzzle or the whole kindergarten collection — each sheet prints cleanly or plays online for free, and the more pictures a child completes, the sharper their eye grows for what is missing and what it takes to make a picture whole again.