• Give your children some small craft sticks, some glue and a piece of cardboard.
• Have them glue a house shape on a piece of cardboard, using the craft sticks.
• When the house is finished, set out some crayons for your children to finish off the house with windows, doors, walkways, chimneys, and flowers.
   

• Set shoe boxes on their sides and cut out a couple windows and a door in each.
• Give the boxes to your children and have them decorate the interior and exterior of their box with marking pens.
• Set out cardboard strips for your children to use to fashion small furniture pieces for their houses.

•  Go through magazines with your children and cut or tear out pictures of different types of houses.
• Set out a large piece of butcher paper and some glue.
• Let your children take turns gluing the house pictures onto the paper collage.
• Hang the collage on your wall.
   

•  Cut out large house shapes from light cardboard.
• Give each of your children three shapes, some glue, some ½ inch red paper strips, some twigs and some dried grass.
• Have the children cut the red strips into 1 “ bricks and glue them onto one house shape to make a house of bricks.
• Then have them glue the grass or straw on another house shape to make a house of straw.
• And finally, have them glue some small twigs on the third house shape to make a house of sticks.

Variation:  If you don’t have time to have each child make all three houses, you could let them each choose a house to make.

• Bring in a large cardboard box.
• Cut out some windows and a door.
• Let your children decide how they would like to decorate your class house.
• Give them the option of using paper scraps, material, markers, etc.
• Leave it as an open-ended project.
• Perhaps let children work in small groups to tackle different areas, inside and out.

HOUSE GAMES

• Let your children play in the block area.
• Encourage them to make houses using the different blocks in the area.

•  Bring in a large child’s doll house with some small furniture.
• Let your children take turns playing with the house.
• Supply some small family characters.
• Encourage your children to create different play scenarios.
   

• Cut small index cards in half.
• Draw a type of house on one side and the same type of house on the other side.
• Make six different types of house sets.
• Mix up the cards.
• Let children take turns finding the six sets of houses.

Variation:  You could also play a game of concentration with these cards and two players.

• Cut pictures of houses out of magazines.
• Mount the pictures on pieces of construction paper or light cardboard.
• Let children take turns taking a picture and counting the windows.
   

• Take 3-4 boxes that can nest inside one another.
• Turn boxes up-side down and using markers, turn each box into a house.
• Set out the houses and ask a child to find the smallest house, or the largest.
• Ask a child to set the houses on top of each other, starting with the largest and so on.

• Place some red and green monopoly houses on a table.
• Let children take turns sorting out the two colors and sizes.
• Count the number of small green houses, how many red houses?  (I know they are hotels- but for this game, we are calling them houses.)

•  Read the story of  “The Three Pigs” to your children.
• Let the children do the huffing and puffing for the wolf.
• You may also want to have your children act out the story.

• Have your children each draw a picture of their house.
• Then let them individually dictate a short story about their house.
• During story time, have children take turns holding up their pictures as you read their stories, or ask them questions about their homes.

• Bring in library books about different types of homes.
• Start a collage on a wall of pictures of different types of homes.
• How many types of houses can they find?
• Tents, Igloos, huts, houseboats, apartments, tree houses, trailers, wood houses, brick houses, concrete houses, etc.

• Discuss with your children the different types of materials used to build homes.
  Such as; bricks, lumber, mud, concrete, ice blocks, canvas, animal hides, etc.
• Have children make a class book with pictures of different types of homes.
   

• How are houses different?
• How are houses the same?

HOUSE SNACKS

• Give you children some graham crackers, some frosting and some toothpicks.
• Show them how to dip a toothpick in frosting and use it to draw features on a cracker to make windows and doors. 
   

• Lay a piece of bread on a plate.
• Put tuna or egg salad on top of the bread.
• Add to carrot sticks to the top of the sandwich in an A-frame, to create a house.

HOUSE MUSIC

OUR WOODEN HOUSE
Tune:  “Mulberry Bush”

This is the way we build our house,
Build our house, build our house,
This is the way we build our house,
All day long.

This is the way we saw the wood,
Saw the wood, saw the wood.
This is the way we saw the wood.
All day long.

This is the way we hammer the wood,
Hammer the wood, hammer the wood.
This is the way we hammer the wood,
All day long.

This is the way we paint our house,
Paint our house, paint our house.
This is the way we paint our house,
All day long.
                                                Adapted Traditional
 

THE LITTLE BUILDER
Tune:  “The Wheels On The Bus”

Oh, the little builders saw goes up and down,
Up and down, up and down.
Oh, the little builders saw goes up and down,
All day long.

Oh, the little builders hammer goes, in and out,
In and out, in and out.
Oh, the little builders hammer goes in and out,
All day long.

Oh, the little builders, paint brush goes back and forth,
Back and forth, back and forth,
Oh, the little builders paint brush goes back and forth,
All day long.
                                                Jean Warren

 
THREE LITTLE HOUSES
Tune:  “Three Blind Mice”

Three little pigs, three little pigs,
Each built a house, each built a house.
The wolf came by and he huffed and puffed.
The straw and stick houses were not so tough.
Thank goodness, the brick house was strong enough,
For three little pigs!
                                                Kathy McCullough
                                                © Warren Publishing House