Alphabet House: Rooms in a House

We continue learning with The Alphabet House theme – this week is Alphabet House: Rooms in a House

Doors & Windows

Our project for the day was to make a paper bag house. Assorted papers and lunch bags were included for this craft. I ave extra Scholastic flyers just for this purpose – stuffing.

While ripping paper and wadding it up to go in the bag house, we talked about what rooms in our homes have windows and doors. How do we use doors and windows in the house? We sang “The Door in the House” (goes open & shut…when NAME goes to school.) Each child choose what color doors and windows they wanted on their home. We really have been enjoying the song “Home is Where Your Heart Is” which inspired the “Home is where the ♥ is” phrase on our homes.

Along with making key imprints in play dough, we also used the keys for some math story problems.

I always enjoy using the Math Story Cards and math manipulatives Mother Goose Time provides with my preschoolers. Using the keys, the children were able to solve the stories by adding and subtracting. Starting with card #1 and going up to #4, the Math Story Cards allow for children to work up to the more challenging levels as they are able.

Living Rooms

On “living room day” we kind of did our own activity. We made living room collages. We discussed: What might you find in a living room? What is in your living room?

Here are the black & white clipart pieces we used in our collages:

Kitchens

On kitchen day we made “oatmeal porridge”. While I worked to get the supplies ready, I told the story of Goldilocks. Kids like it when you tell stories and it’s good for developing their listening skills and attention spans. I don’t use instant oatmeal so I just made the cooked version like normal. After allowing their bowls of oatmeal to cool, the kids mixed in their choice of blueberries, Craisins, raisins and cinnamon sugar.

This simple activity allowed children to make choices based on their preferences, serve themselves, follow directions (please take a little to allow enough for everyone and use spoons to scoop) as well as use their fine motor skills and eye hand coordination. Lots of learning and development going on here besides just enjoying a snack together!

Then we painted with forks. This is a super fun way to paint! Using a familiar object, children can experiment with color and make prints.

One more kitchen related activity: washing dishes! Kids love to wash dishes. They know the process too – wash, rinse and dry. We had to do it several times.

Bathrooms

What do we find in bathrooms?? Bubbles of course! We made some cool bubbles with a little water, dish soap and paint. We did a little blowing practice before putting the straws into the bowls of solution to prevent accidental sucking up of the mixture. My group did very well but if you’re concerned about your child ingesting the solution, don’t do it. The idea was to make colored bubbles and then lay a piece of cardstock over the bubbles to make bubble prints. Some paint colors work better than others for this and I don’t find it overly successful without using a lot of paint, so we just made bubbly messes! Everyone was making sounds through their straws so it was quite lively.

Other bathroom lessons:

Handwashing

We do a lot of hand washing here but it’s always a good to review the hand washing steps. This is the Mother Goose Time poster for practicing washing but ours is slightly different. We are supposed to have children dry hands and turn off the water with their towel. However, usually it doesn’t get done that way…

This is the chart we use. I printed, laminated and attached it to our mirror so they can see it every time they wash.

Bathroom Routine

We’ve been needing some prompts for bathroom time, so I created this routine reminder on a free trial of Boardmaker.

Go to the bathroom.
Close the toilet.
Flush.
Wash hands.

Tools like these help children take responsibility for themselves, learn healthy habits and saves me from repeating myself 20 million times a day. You can download a PDF of the Boardmaker bathroom routine picture cards here.

Bedrooms

What can you find in a bedroom?

pillows
toys
beds
clothes
monkeys jumping on the bed??! Yes! In the picture below you can see the kids playing with a Rhyme Time poster, tray, monkey pieces, numbered bandages, and blanket napkin. Using the pieces the children were able to recite the rhyme, work on memorizing, recalling and counting. Everyone was excited to take home their storytelling set.

Along with the bedroom theme, we made baby beds and put our babies to sleep. This involved dressing the babies, changing their diapers, wrapping them in blankets, singing and “shhhing” the crying babies and reading them stories. Some even snuggled with their babies in cozy beds made with nap mats, blankets and pillows. Very nice to see loving future parents!

Baby doll play is wonderful for learning empathy, care for others, discussing how we treat others and developing a positive self concept. One child in my group is experiencing difficulties with his baby twin siblings…I was hoping this activity would demonstrate and encourage positive interactions with babies.

We had an amazing, hands-on week, learning about rooms in the house!