Spark your child’s imagination and creative thinking skills by building a whimsical gnome home. Make a single home or an entire village. For some bonus fun, build your gnome home outside in a lush patch of greenery or in the crannies of a tree trunk to make it even more magical.

What You’ll Need:

• Craft glue
• Twigs, acorns, leaves, moss, pinecones, pebbles or anything else you find outside
• Buttons, cloth scraps, glitter and little shiny things
• Cardboard, paper plate, milk carton or jug to use as a base

What You’ll Do:

• Lay out the supplies
• Help your child choose a base
• Let your child choose the materials they want to include on their gnome home
• Start building! There’s no right or wrong way to create a gnome home, so encourage your child to let their imagination run wild.

Added fun!

• Create doors and windows by cutting out squares in the base.
• Use battery-operated tea lights as a campfire or fireplace.
• Create a story about the gnome that lives in the home. What do they look like? What do they do for fun? What do they like to eat?

What Kids Learn

• Communication→ Using materials in surprising ways
• Creative Thinking→ Telling stories

How to Support the Play

• Let your child be the architect; guide them as needed, but avoid taking control.
• Focus on the process of creating, not the outcome.
• Ask questions to spark storytelling. (example: “Where does the gnome eat breakfast?”)

HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES