Clothes talking box

Target: attention and listening

• Sit down

  You will need the items of clothing and some music for this activity. 

  Play this as a listening game first with the music only. Encourage all of the children to dance when the music is playing. Then, when the music stops, get all of the children to stop.

  If the children do not automatically stop when the music stops then you will need to say, “Stop!” and hold your hand up to remind them. If the children struggle you can repeat the instruction again.

  You can prompt the children if they are wearing what you said and they haven’t sat down. For example, “Lucy you’re wearing a skirt. Sit down”.

  Extending the activity

  Once you feel the children understand the concept of stopping when the music stops, then when they stop you can add, “Sit down if you’re wearing...” and hold an item of clothing in the air. Continue until everyone is sitting down.

• Stand up

  Following on from the sit down activity, you can now say to the children “Stand up if you’re wearing … “and hold up an item of clothing from the box as a visual reminder. For example, “Stand up if you’re wearing a skirt”. You can hold up the skirt from the box in the air. It can help to get adults to join in as a model.

  Continue naming different items of clothing until everyone is standing up. If the children are struggling, repeat the instruction again. You can prompt the children if they are wearing what you said, for example “Lucy you’re wearing a skirt. Stand up!”

  Extending further

  You can add further information to the instruction (colour or description of item). For example, "Sit down if you’re wearing a green/stripy/spotty t-shirt".

• Washing line game

  You will need a piece of string, pegs and items of clothing for this activity. 

  Before you start this activity, make a washing line from a piece of string. It needs to be long enough to hold all of the items of clothing. Talk to the children about what you've made. "I've made a washing line. We're going to put all the clothes on here."

  Create the scenario that you need to put all of the washing on the line. What do we need to put the clothes on the line? If they can’t guess give them the first sound “P..? ...Pegs.”

  Give each of the children a turn to put an item on the line. For example, “Put the socks on the line”. Socks is the key word. As the children peg the item of clothing on the line, sing:

  This is the way Jake (child’s name) pegs up the socks,
  pegs up the socks, pegs up the socks,
  This is the way Jake pegs up the socks,
  on the washing line.

  Sing to the tune of Here we go round the Mulberry Bush.

  Extending the activity

  • You can give each child 2 things to put on the line.
  • You can do a role-reversal and ask 1 of the children to tell you what to put on the line.

• Top tips

  If the children need extra support you can:

  • make sure the child is looking at you before giving the instruction
  • repeat the instruction again if they do not respond
  • repeat and give the child 2 alternatives to choose from, for example, hold up socks and a skirt and say “Where’s the socks?”

• Getting dressed

  You will need 2 toys to dress and some items of clothing for this activity. 

  Give each child an instruction. For example "Put the hat on the doll". The keywords are hat and doll. 

  If they pick up the wrong item of clothing or put it on the wrong toy, encourage them to “listen again” and then repeat the instruction. 

  If they are still unsure then break the instruction into 2 parts. For example, “Find the hat”. When they have found the hat then say, “Put it on the doll”. 

Target: concepts

• Big and little concepts: Who can wear it?

  You will need child sized clothes, a bag, doll or teddy for this activity. You could use clothes out of your spares box.

  Place all of the clothes in a bag. Place a teddy or doll (or a favourite toy) that could wear the clothes in front of the children. Take it in turns to take an item of clothing out of the bag. Ask the children, “Who would wear this? You or the teddy?”. Talk about how it’s too small to fit them or too big for the toy. 

• Clean and dirty concepts: Washing machine game

  You will need items of clothing and a toy washing machine (or picture of a washing machine) for this activity.

  To do this game you will need to make some of the clothes dirty. Use something that will rub off or wash out easily. Put all of the clothes in a pile on the floor. Create the scenario by saying, “Look some of these clothes are dirty. What can we do with them? What will make them clean? What do clothes go in when they are dirty?”

  Tell the children how you need to sort them into a clean pile and a dirty pile. If you have one in your setting you could sort the dirty clothes into the toy washing machine. Or, you could use a picture of a washing machine.

  To make this activity meaningful, go and sit in the home corner so that the children link this activity with the home corner. You could make the home corner into the laundrette. 

• Hot and cold concepts: We're going on holiay

  For this activity you will need:

  • a picture of somewhere hot and sunny 
  • water
  • sand
  • summer clothes
  • a picture of somewhere cold
  • ice
  • snow
  • winter clothes

  Introduce the topic by saying "Who has been on holiday? Where did you go?". 

  Show them a picture of somewhere hot and sunny, like the beach. Talk about how it's hot, "Look at the sun". Have some tactile things available that the children might associate with the beach. For example, water or sand. Talk about what clothes you might wear when it’s hot. Put them in a bag or suitcase.

  Show them a picture of somewhere cold, like a picture with snow. Talk about the picture, "It looks cold, look at the snow". You could have some ice for the children to touch to remind them that it’s cold. Talk about what clothes you would wear when it’s cold. 

  You could set the home corner up as the area for holiday packing. You could use a suitcase and cupboard for the clothes. 

Target: using language

• It's gone

  You will need items of clothing and a blanket for this activity. You could also choose to use a wand. 

  Place 3 items of clothing from the box in front of the children, like trousers, socks and a jumper. Talk about what they are. Cover them over with a blanket and get the children to close their eyes. Remove one of the items. You could wave a magic wand over the blanket, “Abracadabra, what’s gone?”. Encourage the children to name what’s missing.

  To help the children you can give them:

  • clues about where you might wear the item. For example, if you've hidden socks, you could say "you wear them on your feet".
  • the first sound of the word, such as “sss…”
  • a choice, “Is it socks missing or a skirt?”

• Where do I wear it?

  You will need items of clothing for this activity. 

  As you take each item of clothing out of the box. Talk about where you would wear it. Demonstrate it to the children, for example, take a pair of socks out of the box. Ask "Do I wear these on my head?" and put them on your head. "No! Where do I wear them?” Sort all of the clothes out. You could draw a large picture to match the item of clothing to the part of the body you wear it on. 

• Get dressed teddy

  You will need a teddy or doll for this activity. 

  Choose a toy you could dress up in clothes from the box. Create a scenario, such as Teddy’s just woken up. He’s going to nursery today. Get dressed teddy! What shall he wear today? Encourage children to think about what he will wear. What order will he get dressed in?

  To extend the activity you could play a dressing up game. Use dressing up clothes in your setting and ask the children to guess who you are. 

• It's story time

  You will need story books for this activity. 

  Link the clothes in the box with a story already available in your setting. Each time an item of clothing is mentioned in the story, take it out of the box.

  Make comments about what happened in the story. For example, "Wow, look at those trousers". This will encourage children to use language more than it would to ask them questions. But here are some questions you could ask about the story. 

  Easy questions include:

  • What is this?
  • Who is wearing a skirt?
  • Where’s the jumper?

  Harder questions include:

  • How did the girl feel?
  • What will happen next?

  Asking 'why?' questions are hardest. Remember, there could be lots of different answers. 

  Extending the activity

  • Retell a favourite clothes story: Once you know children are familiar with a story, then encourage them to retell the story to you. Let the children use the clothes in the box to help tell the story.
  • Story strings: Take 1 item of clothing at a time out of the box, and encourage children to tell their own story. You could bring in other items from around your setting to link into the story or encourage children to go and find something. This activity is from the Nursery Narrative Pack.

Target: speech and sound awareness

These activities are for older children.

• Let's clap

  You will need items of clothing for this activity. 

  Open the box. Take an item of clothing out of the box. Encourage the children to name, such as “skirt”. Show the children how you can clap the word, for example “skirt” has 1 clap.

  Extending the activity

  Some children will be able to count the number of claps immediately. Other children will need some support. Use something visual for the children to see as you count, such as bricks. Use 1 brick for each syllable/clap. As the children become more confident, encourage them to take the bricks out as you say the word. 

  • Dress has 1 syllable/clap.
  • Jumper has 2 syllables/claps.
  • Trousers has 2 syllables/claps.
  • T-shirt has 2 syllables/claps.
  • Socks has 1 syllable/clap.
  • Skirt has 1 syllable/clap.
  • Pants has 1 syllable/clap.

Singing

Remember to sing slowly so the children can hear the words.

• Down in the jungle

  Down in the jungle where nobody goes
  There's a great big gorilla washing his clothes
  With a rub-a-dub here and a rub-a-dub there
  This is the way he washes his clothes
  Boom boodie, boom boodie, boogie woogie boo!
  Boom boodie, boom boodie, boogie woogie boo!
  Boom boodie, boom boodie, boogie woogie boo!
  That's the way he washes his clothes
  Down in the jungle where nobody goes
  There's a slithery snake washing his clothes
  With a rub-a-dub here and a rub-a-dub there
  This is the way he washes his clothes
  Boom boodie, boom boodie, boogie woogie sss
  Boom boodie, boom boodie, boogie woogie sss
  Boom boodie, boom boodie, boogie woogie sss
  That's the way he washes his clothes
  Down in the jungle where nobody goes
  There's a great big crocodile washing his clothes
  A rub-a-dub here and a rub-a-dub there
  This is the way he washes his clothes
  Boom boodie, boom boodie, boogie woogie snap
  Boom boodie, boom boodie, boogie woogie snap
  Boom boodie, boom boodie, boogie woogie snap
  That's the way he washes his clothes
  Down in the jungle where nobody goes
  There's a great big elephant washing his clothes
  A rub-a-dub here and a rub-a-dub there
  This is the way he washes his clothes
  Boom boodie, boom boodie, boogie woogie bop
  Boom boodie, boom boodie, boogie woogie bop
  Boom boodie, boom boodie, boogie woogie bop
  That's the way he washes his clothes
  Boogie woogie woogie woogie woo!

• This is the way I put on my hat

  This is the way I put on my hat, put on my hat
  This is the way I put on my hat
  On a cold and frosty morning

  Sing to the tune Here we go round the Mulberry Bush. You can add different items of clothing.