Kitchen & Positional Concepts Busy Book Activity!

This activity is available for purchase in the Simplicity Happens shop. Read on to find out more!

A few times each week, my son and I cook food together in the kitchen. He has helped me cook eggs, put chopped vegetables in a bowl, and mix in sauces for various meals. He also helps set the table, sort silverware, and put dishes in the dishwasher. So this activity is all about the kitchen and incorporates following directions with positional concepts (in, on, under). Your little ones can play and follow directions with kitchen-themed items including a spoon and plate, cup, milk, cookies, fruit bowl, soup bowl, and cake. Other items that you might find in your kitchen, especially with little ones, include a toy truck, ball and cat!

The contents of this activity, such as text, graphics, images, information, as well as other material and content contained in this activity are for informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding your child’s development.

This activity features language and cognitive development concepts children learn throughout their early childhood years as a toddler, preschooler, and within their early elementary school years. Specific age milestone information can be found with a simple internet search!

Great! Let’s get started with this fun kitchen-themed activity!

There are three background scenes. One is for the following directions activity and the other two are for matching picture to picture.

First, let’s print and laminate the following directions kitchen background scene and kitchen cutouts.

Following Directions Background Scene with examples and kitchen cutouts!

Next, cut out the kitchen cutouts.

Then, attach either dot adhesives (soft side) for use in your child’s interactive binder book or magnets for use on a magnet board to the back of the picture cutouts. Additionally, place dot adhesives (rough side) on the kitchen background scene. Hole punch the top of the sheet for use in your child’s interactive binder book. Note: Adult Supervision is required. Use caution with the magnets, dot adhesives, and small pieces as they are not intended for use with children under the age of 3. Please use caution and supervise your child with the dot adhesives, magnets and small pieces when working on this activity. Only work on activities that you feel are safe for your child. Warning: Choking Hazard. Children under 3 should not participate in any activities that involve small pieces.

Is your child under 3? This activity includes a modified version of this activity available in bigger print for younger toddlers. Small pieces, magnets, and dot adhesives are not intended for use with the bigger print activities. Please remember that adult supervision is required with all activities shared and/or purchased on Simplicity Happens. Just a kind reminder to stay safe and have fun while learning with your little ones!

I put adhesive dots (soft side) on the back of the kitchen picture cutouts.

Then, put adhesive dots (rough side) on the kitchen background scene. You’ll notice I hole-punched the top of the page to store in my son’s interactive play binder.

There are following directions prompts in the kitchen picture cutouts activity such as, “Put the cookies in the cookie jar.” You can use these prompts while working with your child, but you can also make up your own. More than likely, your little ones will decide as well. Just follow their lead while playing with this activity! You can get really silly! Once your child has mastered one-step directions, you can move on to two-step directions (i.e. “Put the cup on the table and the fruit in the fruit bowl.”) and three-step directions (i.e. “Put the soup bowl in the microwave, the cake in the oven, and the spoon and plate on the table.”). You can also work toward temporal directions using before (i.e. “Before you put the cake in the oven, put the cookies in the cookie jar.”), and after (i.e. “After you put the ball under the table, put the milk on the counter).”

Now that the activities have been shown and set up, let’s get to the PLAY experience!

Matching Background Scene #1: Picture to Picture

This activity also includes two background scenes for matching picture to picture.

Let’s set up Matching Background Scene #1.

First, I cut out the kitchen cutouts for Matching Background Scene #1.

I put adhesive dots (soft side) on the back of the Matching Background Scene #1 kitchen picture cutouts.

Matching Background Scene #1 Kitchen Cutouts with adhesive dots (soft side)

Then, put adhesive dots (rough side) on the kitchen background scene #1.

Matching Background Scene #1 with adhesive dots (rough side)

Great! The activity is set up. Let’s get to the fun part!

My son matches the picture cutouts to the “same” picture on Matching Background Scene #1.

First, he matches the soup bowl in the microwave and the fruit bowl on the counter! Great job!

Then, he matches the truck, cat, cup and milk! Awesome!

And then he matches the cake and cookies before matching the remaining kitchen items! Great job!

Matching Background Scene #2: Picture to Picture

Let’s set up Matching Background Scene #2.

First, I cut out the kitchen cutouts for Matching Background Scene #2.

I put adhesive dots (soft side) on the back of the Matching Background Scene #1 kitchen picture cutouts.

Then, put adhesive dots (rough side) on the kitchen background scene #2.

Great! Now that it’s all set up, let’s get to the FUN!

First, he matches the cookies! Great job!

Next, he matches the cup, soup in the microwave, plate and spoon, and truck on the chair. Awesome!

Then, he matches the fruit bowl and cup on the counter. Awesome!

And he matches the ball on the chair with the cat underneath before matching the remaining items! Great job!

I keep a record of his receptive labeling knowledge during this activity for future play activities in my “Activity Garden: Goal Tracking Sheets” booklet.

I then keep track of his progress on this specific activity in my Activity Garden Tracking Sheet booklet:

Receptive Labeling

This activity can be used for receptively labeling the kitchen vocabulary.

First, my son and I go through the pictures together. I want to determine his ability to identify the kitchen items when I name them. This demonstrates his ability to receptively label kitchen vocabulary.

First, we work on receptive labeling:

I ask him to, “Point to the soup.” Great job!

I ask him to, “Point to the truck.” Awesome!

I ask him to, “Point to the milk.” He continues to point to the remaining items with my directives. If he needs support with an item, I’ll point to and say, “Here is the milk. Now you point to the milk.” I then tell him what a great job he did finding all of the pictures.

Expressive Labeling

This activity can be used for expressively labeling the kitchen vocabulary.

Next, my son and I go through the kitchen items together. I want to determine his ability to identify kitchen vocabulary when I point to the picture and ask, “What is this?” This demonstrates his ability to expressively label kitchen vocabulary.

Now, we work on expressive labeling:

I point to the cat and say, “What is this?” My son replies, “a cat.” Great job!

I point to the cookies and say, “What are these?” My son replies, “cookies.” Awesome!

I point to the cup and say, “What is this?” My son replies, “a cup.”

I point to the plate and spoon and say, “What are these?” My son replies, “a plate and spoon.” Great!

I point to the ball and say, “What is this?” My son replies, “a ball.”

I point to the cake and say, “What is this?” My son replies, “Cake.” If he needs support with any of the items, I point to the item and say, “This is a cake. You eat cake at birthdays and for dessert. What is this?” After he responds, I tell him what a great job he did telling me about the items.

Receptive: Following Directions with Positional Concepts

First, my son follows one-step directions with positional concepts.

After he puts the cat under the table, the cookies in the cookie jar, and the soup in the microwave, I ask him to, “Put the cake in the oven.” Great job!

Then I ask him to, “Put the plate and spoon on the table.” Awesome!

Last, I ask him to, “Put the truck under the table.” If he needs support with following directions, I’ll take the item and say, “I’m putting the truck under the table. Now you put the truck under the table.” After he completes the picture, I tell him what a great job he did following the directions.

Once he gets into a groove one-step directions with positional concepts. I give him multi-step directions with positional concepts! This includes the following directions:

“Put the cake in the oven and then put the cookies in the cookie jar.”

“Put the soup in the microwave and the cup on the table.”

“Before you put the cake in the oven, put the fruit in the bowl.”

“After you put the plate and spoon on the table, put the truck under the table.”

Expressive: Following Directions with Positional Concepts

Now it’s time to get expressive with these directions!

I point to the cookies and ask, “Where are the cookies?” My son replies, “in the jar.” Great job!

I point to the soup and ask, “Where is the soup?” He replies, “Right there.” I reciprocate by helping him out. I say, “The soup is in the microwave. Now you tell me where the soup is?” He responds with, “In the microwave.”

I point to the ball and ask, “Where is the ball?” He points to the ball and says, “Under the table.” Great job little buddy!

I point to the plate and spoon and ask, “Where is the plate and spoon? He replies, “On the table.” Awesome!

I point to the cake in the oven and ask, “Where is the cake?” He responds, “Right there.” I help him out by saying, “The cake is in the oven. Now you tell me where the cake is?” He responds with, “In the oven.” Nice job! We continue on with the remaining items! After we complete the activity, I tell him what a great job he did telling me where all of the items were on the page.

Once we are finished playing with the activity, we store the kitchen items in a zip pouch for future use.

What did you and your little ones enjoy most about this activity? Let me know in the comments below!

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