ESE Children's Church Classroom - Life Skills (#8)

Life skills...cooking, cleaning, making your bed, folding clothes, brushing teeth, tying shoes. Life skills are those skills we need to learn to "do" life, practically speaking. While life skills are typically taught at home, schools, churches, and extended friends are family members should chip in to help make the transition from dependence to independence for the child smoother. 

We only have our kids for an hour and a half or so each week, and a chunk of that time is spent teaching them the Bible lesson. Therefore, what life skills we can teach them in our room, we have disguised as play and incorporated them into their free time.

Remember, we have a play kitchen and dishes and food. Learning to serve people and use manners and ask questions about others likes and dislikes is all a part of developing life skills. So we request certain "dishes" and drinks, comment that our food is cold and needs to be cooked longer, and encourage "cleaning" the dishes when free time is over. 

​I also put sticker pictures of a knife, fork, and spoon in the utensils tray so the kids can practice putting the dishes away where they go and sorting. They can even sort the utensils by color! The idea for this activity came from here.

I printed a girl's head, cut it out, and laminated it. Then I bought some metal no-slip hair clips for the kids to practice putting in the girl's hair. An alternative to this would have been a real doll with yarn hair, such as a Cabbage Patch Doll or maybe even one of those make-up doll heads with hair. This is a great fine motor exercise for their fingers as well! And I got the barrettes in different patterns and colors for sorting purposes. The idea for this activity came from here.

This is a corner shelf rack. They come with one or two tiers. I printed some clipart clothing pieces, cut them out, and laminated them. The kids can practice hanging the clothes with clothespins, organizing them by type or color if they choose. Again, those clothespins are great pinching exercises for fine motor development. The idea for this activity came from here.

I have no doubt I will be adding to the life skills activities in our classroom as I come across them. I love play with a purpose!