Attention activity-from the book (animals live in different types of homes)
• Before class, tape animal/fish cut-outs on the wall that go along with the items in the three containers.
• Fill three containers with one of each of the following- water, soil and a twig from a tree.
• Show one container at a time and ask what is in here? Then, ask what kinds of animals live in water? Then let the children go around the room and pick one animal cut-out that lives in water. Tell them when they have one to find a seat.
• Have each child take turns showing their cut-out and what it  is. Let them stick it on the chalkboard. Repeat for other containers/animal cut-outs.
Blocks – Build homes. Provide toy people and invite the children to build homes for them.
Dramatic play/learning: People have different homes just like animals. Story of Lehi:
• Talked about Lehi's family living in a regular house and then needing to move.
• Brought a sheet and put it over the table and called it a tent. Let the kids go under table. Lifted front of sheet and talked about how it would be to live in a tent.
• Talked about building the ship. Had kids pantomime cutting down trees, carry wood, sawing wood for the ship. We all hammered with our fists on the table as we built our ship. The kids loved it.
• I turned the table upside down when our ship was finished.  I let the kids stand inside the ship. I waved the sheet in front of the ship like a sail (the best I could). Talked about what it would  be like to live in a ship. We rocked our bodies back and forth like a ship might rock.
• Talked about arriving in the Promised Land, and Lehi's family living in a tent again until they could build more permanent houses. Turned table right side up and made a tent again. Kids went inside the tent
• While they were in the tent, we reviewed the different houses in which Lehi's family lived. I had them repeat them a couple of times.
Gingerbread Houses – Using graham crackers, frosting and small candies, have each child build their own homes.  Spread with peanut butter and apply to sides of SMALL milk carton (you could go to a local school and ask them to donate x amount of cartons), decorate the houses with mini marshmallows, red hots, raisins, etc.
"Home" Lacing Card - (Black/White) or (Color).  You can have the child color the picture and then punch out the holes.  Take some yarn tie onto card.  Instead of using a needle I just take tape and tape the end around really tight so that it acts like a needle.  It works really well.  (I hope that makes sense!)
I did a water activity for this lesson.  I had put water on the floor before, but this time I used rolls of duct tape under the containers on the table. Because washing dishes is a chore that children might help with, I put a little dish soap in to make suds and gave them sturdy plastic spoons, cups and small plates to wash.  When I had the first bowl of water ready, I invited a child to come and wash the dishes. She just looked at it, then told me she didn't know how to wash the dishes. Of course! I'm old and washing by hand isn't a surprise to me, but for young ones today, dishwashers are what they are used to seeing. After I showed her how to do it, everyone got into playing in the water, then drying the (soapy) dishes. It was fun to see them work so hard. The soapy water did get on the table a bit and when the tape got wet it didn't stick, but by then everyone was used to not picking up the bowls so no one tried to pour the water out.  Plus all our hands were very clean for snack time!  (Idea by Jennie C.)
Smells like home!:  This was a HUGE hit last year!  Send 2 empty film containers home with the children a week prior to this lesson.  (I went to Inkley's but most places will give you however many film canisters you need).  Include a note asking the parent(s) to fill the canisters with some sort of familiar and/or favorite scent from their house.  With the collection of assorted scents (mom's perfume, popcorn, or the smell of a child's favorite food (one mom sent peanut butter and jelly in one container), etc.)  We passed each one around as the children guessed what it was (have the parents write answer on outside of container w/Sharpie marker) It is a wonderful language opportunity and fun to see if the children recognize these scents from their own homes and their eyes light up when they realize it's theirs.



House Words Book - you could print as many or as few pages as you want
Mini-book on Homes



Clipart of homes
 

I am thankful for my home
Home



Crafts on Homes and Dwellings
Folding House: Mount the folding house and hearts on a heavier piece of paper or lightweight cardboard, and color them. Cut out the house and the slot in the roof. Fold along the dotted lines to create a box house, and glue where indicated. Cut out the hearts. Begin with an empty house each morning. During the day, each time you remember to show your love for a family member, slip a heart through the slot in the roof. At the end of the day, open the lid of your box house and see how many hearts you have collected. Start over each day and try to increase the number of hearts you place in your house. Share this activity with your family, and see how many hearts you can collect together. (Make more hearts as needed.) -From June 1996 Friend
I got some large colored popsicle sticks and glued them in the shape of a house.  I used a combination of red, yellow and blue and made a house frame and added foam hearts.   It can be used as a picture frame or just as a take home craft for the kids to remember the lesson by. (Idea by Kathy Blose)
Lincoln's Log Cabin

Making your house a home



Build a House - [Instructions and Dice Template] and [House Pieces]  Print off enough house pieces for each player of the game.  I realized after the fact that the windows are too big...so they'll overlap onto the door.  Oh well!  Sorry.  8-4-2006



I took digital photos of each child's home.  I then incorporated them into a sheet for them to color – a caption at the top reading "I am thankful for my home", inserted a small (about 3X5) photo of their home, another caption reading "I can help take care of my home", and some generic clip art of some simple chores they could do – making the bed, feeding the pets, setting, the table, etc.  The children with absolutely thrilled to see their homes on the handout – and the moms seemed to think it was a great idea too.   (Credit: Cheri Dagupan)
If you are the type that likes to go a bit over the top (you know who you are) and do something fun and different, I found this cute idea that would be a fun handout if you plan in advance.  They are darling house pencil toppers.  Click here to read more.
Draw a line between the animal and its home



A House or a Home?
LDS Primary Lesson Helps for Lesson 31
The May 2004 Friend has a wonderful "Family Duties" page. It looks like it was meant to be a chore chart, but I printed it off and have made a game out of it. On the wheel I drew an arrow in one of the slots and will have the children spin the wheel. Wherever the wheel lands we will act out what chore that is. I don't know about you, but my children just love playing pretend. (Idea by Joice in GA)



Song: "Fun to Do"

• Use pictures of things the kids could do to keep their homes neat and clean (from MeckMom's Favorite Bright Ideas)
• Had kids choose a chore out of the bag and tell what it was.
• We sang "that chore" to "Fun to Do" song while we acted it out. Example: making my bed is fun to do while pretending to make the bed, or picking up toys is fun to do while pantomiming picking up toys and putting them away, etc. Check the clip art from the link above for ideas. The kids really enjoyed this.

A HOME
 

A home has windows.
A home has doors.
A home has walls.
A home has floors.
A home can be tall.
A home can be short.
A home may have a hall.
A home may have a porch.
Every home is different;
Only one thing is the same.
Inside there lives a family
With a very special name.

Homes, February 1988 Friend

  Candy Birds Nests...a birds "home".