New Home Collage
This project is
extremely flexible and can be as real, as fanciful, as simple or as complex as
you and the kids want to make it. Possibilities for language stimulation are
endless.
Objectives
Children ages 5-6 years can contribute to group planning of a
goal-directed activity SE IV
Ages 4-5 years can glue objects together FM II
Ages 3-4 can categorize pictures of furniture into rooms of houses Cog. II
And they can name functions of objects such as furniture pieces Cog. I
and they can name familiar objects Cog. IV A
Materials
Magazines which
feature pictorial displays of furniture and household articles; a large piece
of butcher paper or tag board with predawn lines delineating room perimeters
(leave room for the yard); pens and glue.
Procedures
1. Make up a pretend family. Everyone at the project chooses a
role to play as family member: mom, dad, grandfather, roommate, pet, etc.
Describe a problem: what would they do if their house burned down or they were
evicted, or just moved into town, etc.? They need to find a new place to live.
2. Pretend to drive around and look for a new house. When an empty house is
found, decide if it is suitable. Ask the members of the family what kind of
rooms the house needs and what the functions of those rooms are. They decide
the location of those rooms in the new house. As the family decides which rooms
are which, print the names of the rooms inside the proper spaces on the butcher
paper.
3. Next, show the children a picture that is a focal element of one of the
rooms (stove, bed, etc.). Ask the children to name the item and state its
function. What do you do with it? Where should it go? Paste the picture in a
prominent position in the appropriate space. These will serve as guides to help
the children remember which rooms are which.
4. Keep the game going. Finish the house, inside and out. As the children
choose things to glue in the house, ask each of them some of the questions
listed above. Encourage spontaneous discussions about their homes, rooms,
furniture, etc.
5. Just about anything will go in the house. Some of our kids more unusual
creations are included: a helicopter on a roof; a giant pet snake under mom and
dad’s bed; a huge pile of dirt clipped from a magazine and dumped in a chair in
the living room; stained glass windows; seventeen cakes and pies; homemade
waterbeds from magazine pictures of the ocean; a pet dinosaur in the yard; and
a tree fort made with pictures of a real house and tree. Have fun in your new
home, we’ll be over to visit when you get moved in. Variations
1. Younger children may not understand all of the fantasy
here, but group spirit should carry them along. A younger group could furnish
just a bedroom and kitchen, for example – minus some of the fantasy.
2. Let each child furnish his or her own room exactly as
each would like it to be.
3. Make a park and playground. Include everything in it
that would be fun.
4. Older children could plan a shopping center with
stores that sell only things that are desirable or necessary. (Our children
would never allow stores to sell cigarettes.)
5. Make and furnish a perfect preschool or child care
center.
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