Building frenzy
Lots of building going on with our student-teachers these
days: building lesson plans and units; building projects’; building prototypes
of all sorts using various materials including Lego robotics, wooden blocks,
foam blocks, straws, cardboard; and above all, building knowledge.
One topic that came my way recently was students wanting to
develop a unit for primary grades around the idea of building a community. Did
I have any recommendations that would inspire and inform a unit like this?
YES!
With the idea in mind that young children would connect
readily with building homes (and ties neatly into the Alberta social studies
curriculum to boot) we decided to start with that.
I recommended browsing the series, Young Architect with the
following titles:
Futuristic Homes by Sa.Taylor Working Homes by G. Bailey
Towering Homes by G. Bailey Storybook Homes by G. Bailey
Adventure Homes by G. Bailey
Though the suggested grade level is 3 to 6, I think the
illustrations would certainly spark the imagination of students in grades 1 and
2, as well. These particular student teachers got excited when they started
flipping through them, for there’s lots of information about construction
techniques and materials and definitions for specialized words. I didn’t think
these books provided everything but were a good starting point.
I matched these books with the picture book by Chris Van
Drusen, If I Built a House because it takes a fanciful,
pie-in-the-sky approach to building a home for the narrator’s family.
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I’m hoping I’ll find out how the students developed this
unit further in the near future.
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