Houses long ago

Ages 3 to 5 Read and do together · about 15 minutes

Read together

Long ago, people built homes from what they found.

Mud, wood, stone, grass and animal skins.

Do it

1. Look at pictures of old homes: a wooden longhouse, a stone hut, a tipi, a bahay kubo made of bamboo and palm leaves.
2. Ask: what is it made of? Why would people choose that?
3. Build a small model from blocks, sticks and cloth.
4. Talk about what is the same as your home: a door, a place to sleep, a place to eat.

Talk about it

• What is your home made of?
• Which old home would you like to visit?

For the grown-up

People everywhere have built homes from local materials, in ways that suit their climate and way of life. Some of these homes are still built today. Be careful to speak of Indigenous peoples in the present as well as the past.

Mark as done

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Where this comes from

• Paul Oliver, Dwellings: The Vernacular House World Wide (Phaidon, 2003)
• Cultural Center of the Philippines Encyclopedia of Philippine Art, entries on Philippine architecture and the bahay kubo
• Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, educational material on Native homes (longhouses, tipis and others)

Written with AI assistance and checked against the sources listed. Please read it before sharing it with a child.