Another year has come to an end! This last week we just enjoyed the friendships that were cultivated this year. As they played, here are some explorations that started popping up! If only we had more time so that we could inquire about them further! Transient Art: The patience and thought process behind some of these designs were awesome! A "Can You Build It?" Challenge: I loved their interpretations of some of these structures! Exploring Balance: I have been encouraging this exploration all year, but they just became interested in it this past week! Dancing: This was a very spontaneous interest that popped up that could have been a very fun inquiry! They were ballroom dancing, ballet dancing, and break dancing! The kids started giving each other lessons! They had to give and follow multiple step directions with each other. And it was also adorable to watch! Oh the things we could explore if we just had more time! These kids had so much curiosity and looked at everything as something to explore further. The room is packed up for another group of kids to add their personal touch. I wonder what it will look like next year? It always makes me sad when the personality the room had from our group is gone and it is all so bare. I will miss them so much but it is time to let them go and become first graders at new schools. I know that they will be successful because of all of the 21st Century Skills they have developed this year! They are super! Parents, I hope you all enjoy the video! We watched it together no less than 10 times in our room. I wish you could have heard all 30 of them belting out that song! It was their favorite....even more than "Let it Go!" I will miss you all. Have a wonderful summer!
Aren't old houses fascinating? The beauty and aesthetic of design meeting function...when you couple it with the historic context of the era when it was built, it becomes even more so... Ever since that first Lego Duplo set, our son has been building and designing. He has amazing spatial skills (as evidenced by these etch-a-sketch drawings!) and this is his student-led study on architecture, appropriate for middle and high school students. Never fear, mom, I've remembered to address the littles, too! Resources just for them are listed at the bottom. Let's begin with a review of the basic architectural column designs. Of the three columns found in Greece, Doric columns are the simplest. They have a capital (the top, or crown) made of a circle topped by a square. The shaft (the tall part of the column) is plain and has 20 sides. There is no base in the Doric order. The Doric order is very plain, but powerful-looking in its design. Doric, like most Greek styles, works well horizontally on buildings, that's why it was so good with the long rectangular buildings made by the Greeks. The area above the column, called the frieze [pronounced "freeze"], had simple patterns. Ionic shafts were taller than Doric ones. This makes the columns look slender. They also had flutes, which are lines carved into them from top to bottom. The shafts also had a special characteristic: entasis, which is a little bulge in the columns make the columns look straight, even at a distance [because since you would see the building from eye level, the shafts would appear to get narrower as they rise, so this bulge makes up for that - so it looks straight to your eye but it really isn't !] . The frieze is plain. The bases were large and looked like a set of stacked rings. Ionic capitals consist of a scrolls above the shaft. The Ionic style is a little more decorative than the Doric. The Corinthian order is the most decorative and is usually the one most modern people like best. Corinthian also uses entasis to make the shafts look straight. The Corinthian capitals have flowers and leaves below a small scroll. The shaft has flutes and the base is like the Ionian. Unlike the Doric and Ionian cornices, which are at a slant, the Corinthian roofs are flat. Part of the fun of architecture is getting to express your unique individuality!! Below are some fun activities for your students to explore their styles and do just that! What Is Your Architecture Personality? This quiz determines your architecture personality. At the end of the quiz it tells you about the different styles of architecture. This is definitely geared more towards adults than students, but the boys loved taking the tests lots of different ways to see what types of styles they could produce. American House : Styles of Architecture Coloring Book Crisp renderings of over 40 extant structures from Taos Pueblo to striking contemporaries. Spanish Colonial, Georgian, Stick, Gothic, many other styles. Rich and informative captions date, identify, and describe each dwelling. How to Become an Architect This page answers some of the most frequently asked questions about careers in architecture. The advice comes from several architects. You can't learn about architecture without getting hands-on! Here are some of the best kits and activities that we have stumbled upon so far. Lego Architecture : Eiffel Tower Lego has an entire line of architectural designs, ranging from $30 to $180. The Eiffel Tower is on the lower range, and we spent a whole day studying France while building this one!! (Double the learning, double the fun!) Lego Architect Studio This one is the mack-daddy of architectural sets from Lego...including a 300 page booklet and more bricks than any one child should own! Young Architect Kit Create a 3-dimensional design model in just 3 easy steps! Great for aspiring young architects, design and furnish your floor plan with templates and colored pencils that are included. To top it off, this building set is reusable, so you can start from scratch and redesign your floor plans over and over again for endless fun. Finally, David Macaulay's Building Big series at PBS offers students a chance to work with engineering concepts on an interactive site. This site is the accompaniment to his DVD series, which was fascinating for our entire family. Ranging from age 6 to Dad, we all enjoyed watching these videos together. Building Big PBS developed this site for use with the five-part series Building Big by David Macaulay. It covers bridges, domes, skyscrapers, dams, and tunnels. Interactive activities allow children experience with the challenges of design and construction for each of these structure types as well as engineering labs that cover forces, loads, materials, and shapes. David Macaulay DVD series Pyramid Roman City Castle Cathedral Mill Times Building Big: Bridges/Domes/Skyscrapers/Dams/Tunnels Early Elementary Resources How a House is Built If You Lived Here : Houses of the World American House : Styles of Architecture Coloring Book Victorian Architecture Coloring Page Hands-On Architecture Four activities that let your student play and invent new buildings! These are designed to develop an understanding of building, encourage creativity, and practice techniques. Looking for new ways to challenge your students to excel and pursue subjects of interest? With SchoolhouseTeachers.com, you and your child will have immediate access to 463 courses! Jump right in with the classes you think will be the best fit. New members may use the code FINISHWELL to save big on the Quarterly Membership. Purchase for only $45 (reg. $59.97). Additional membership resources include monthly meal menus, college and career planning resources, printable planners, calendars, videos, World Book online, and more.
I absolutely love Ashley's Top Ten Pin Linky! It gives me a chance to go through my pin boards so I don't forget all the wonderful ideas I've pinned. If you haven't been linking up, you should! \ Click the pictures to go to the sites! My first pin I'm excited about...I just bought this yesterday: I saw on facebook yesterday that it was only $29. Earlier this summer, I had looked at it but it was much closer to $50 so when I saw it yesterday, I bought it. When I went back to get the link for the picture, it is back up to $45. {If you follow me on facebook, you had a heads up about the price jumping. If you don't, would you? Please? Thanks!) Back to the dvds, last year, I watched a few of these with my students. They learned SO MUCH from these videos. I recently went to a conference on Autism and the biggest tip was using video modeling to teach students with autism. {Confession: This made me feel so much better about all of the movies we watched last year!} These videos are super entertaining for all my kids but they are especially helpful for my students with autism. I have a bunch of pins like this one...Ginger from Ginger snaps organized picture books by topic: Go check them out! I think this would be really cool to get this and put it on our window. Great for life cycles! And how fun would this be to do? I'll do this during our animal adaptations unit. In my school, we use QPEOC (Question, Predict, Experiemnt, Observation, Conclusion) for the scientific method. I made these posters & a science journal to use last year. I love having them keep their science things together. I'll be updating this soon for next year. How fun would this be to make as a class? If you have a TON of broken crayons you might be able to do one per kid (small jars). It's a candle! You put the wick in, fill with crayons & leave outside for the sun to melt the wax! Communities is the biggest part of my social studies curriculum for all 3 grade levels. I like the idea of making towns with paper bags instead of sticky milk cartons, easier to decorate too. With 3 full curriculums to get through, I need to incorporate science and social studies into ELA. That's why I love these Magic Tree House books & the book companions that go with them: This is my FAVORITE book for teaching map skills: Every year, the third graders make salt dough maps of China. I like that they color coded this one: I have some new ideas that I'm off to start working on :)
Build a unit study for your homeschool in 6 easy steps! Create a Unit Study for any topic using these steps and our PDF unit planner.
Create a book of structures for the block center, whether in kindergarten, preschool, or at home. Perfect for exploring STEM concepts and inspiring children as they create and build in the block center. Includes a link to a free printable.
This is a review and show and tell of an Engineering Science Unit we did called The World's Tallest Buildings
Need homeschool unit studies ideas for theme learning approach and hands-on homeschool curriculum, incorporating a variety of subjects and topics like math, science, language arts, and social sciences? You'll learn: what are unit studies as a homeschool method or style of homeschooling and how to write your own learning unit, even using free homeschool resources for free unit studies for kindergarten / preschool and up! (YES, even middles school and high school aged student theme units!)
Learn how to create simple models and maps with early years students with this free geography printable!
Second Grade artists finished their outstanding Austin cityscapes! We used basic shapes and lines to draw the unique city skyline of Austin with black crayon. We included the Colorado River, otherwise known as Lady Bird Lake, in the foreground. Then we looked at different Fauvist artists - artists that used bright imaginary colors during the art period of 1904- 1910. Students took this inspiration to paint their cityscapes with imaginary colors. Here is their display on our big art bulletin board.
Build research and writing skills with a historical travel brochure
Use these question of the day cards on a pocket chart when you teach Creative Curriculum's Buildings Study. ...
Don't know how to teach kids about volcanoes? I've compiled a lot of resources, and helpful links. Plus, don’t miss the free 'Parts of a Volcano Worksheet' to enhance your exploration.
This week, we have a FREE Unit Study about Frank Lloyd Wright. Learn about his life, the buildings he designed, and different types of architecture.
Since Labor Day is right around the corner, I thought now was the perfect time to teach him about helpers in the community.
Learn how to create homeschool unit studies that are fun and engaging for your children and foster a love of learning more about the world around them.
A super fun earthquake unit study that combines engineering with studies in earthquakes, plate tectonics, waves and more.
How to set up the blocks center in your early childhood classroom (with ideas, tips, and book list) plus block center freebies!
Can your child recognize famous buildings and structures around the world? A great list of books and resources to learn about world architecture for kids.
Are you excited?!? Today marks the first activity post in our Architecture and Engineering for Preschool series! To kick things off, I turned our neglected Mega Bloks into famous monuments even my toddler and preschooler can build. Making Monuments During my Art History for Preschool series last year, some of…
Teach kids about blueprints and architecture with this fun dream house project. Print out blueprints and create and design a house. STEM project idea
A super fun earthquake unit study that combines engineering with studies in earthquakes, plate tectonics, waves and more.
Explore famous world landmarks right from the comfort of your own learning environment. The block center provides many learning opportunities for preschoolers. In this center they are learning essential math skills, using their imagination, scientific reasoning, teamwork, motor skill development and more! Add these posters to your construction space to inspire budding architects! This 17-page digital product includes 2-levels of building mats for the following 7 landmarks: Parthenon Mats Eiffel Tower Mats Stonehenge Mats Taj Mahal Mats Big Ben Mats Sydney Opera House Mats Pisa Tower Mats Also included: Graphics Credit, TOS Easy to assemble-simply print and laminate! Use as small group learning centers, or place them in your blocks center. You might also like: Science and Discovery Preschool Activities Let's Build! Poster Pack for the Block Center
Actually ,we have assembled over 105 engineering projects for kids and are adding more as we complete or find more resources.
Our adventures around the world with Build Your Library has lead us to Europe. Join us as we visit the United Kingdom!
I am so excited! WE CAN PLAY! At an end of the year quick meeting the K teachers were told we can bring back a little time of play i...
Do you have a budding paleontologist in the house? Creating a unit study can be overwhelming. That is why we compiled this comprehensive resource list to help you learn more about dinosaurs or create a whole dinosaur unit study! We hope the following resources are helpful and useful for doing your own Unit Study at […]
Studying about Leonardo da Vinci can combine two subjects kids usually don’t consider as similar: art and science. Add in this fun hands-on science activity.
This product is to be used along with Creative Curriculum. These are the weekly objectives for the Buildings Study. It includes color and black and white.These cards work best if they are laminated. They can be hung up at the front of the room near the board to show what you are working on in the cl...
We had requested the book If You Lived Here from the library a few weeks ago and I kept meaning to get around to reading it with the boys...
Create a book of structures for the block center, whether in kindergarten, preschool, or at home. Perfect for exploring STEM concepts and inspiring children as they create and build in the block center. Includes a link to a free printable.
This printable pack includes word wall cards as well as picture cards containing different types of buildings. All words were taken from the Teaching Strategies Buildings Theme lesson book. There is 30 different word wall cards, including everything from types of buildings, building materials, and b...
Earlier this week, I shared the ten topics from our latest Family Unit Study: Architecture Around the World. This unit has been an absolute hit with the kids! They are loving the wide variety of hands-on activities—everything from watercolor art, to scavenger hunts, to STEM challenges and the architecture activity I'm going to share with
Little Learners are captivated by science! In this post, we're talking all about the Little Learner Science Curriculum and hopefully answer the questions you may have about it. First things first, the science curriculum has been designed specifically for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten using the NGSS standards, various state standards, as well as current research. Research tells us students learn by doing, feeling, touching, and examining, so that's just what this science curriculum is packed full of! I have included hands-on science activities that are appropriate for little learners.
From reading fun books to STEM projects, this Viking Unit gave us a vast insight to where exploration began and helped set the stage for the Age of Exploration.
Free History Unit Studies. | 50 free history unit studies with hands-on ideas | grab free lapbooks to pair with history topics
Do you have blocks in your classroom? This *FREEBIE* is a great way for students to build a structure using a provided picture. The structures on each card are famous structures from around the world. There are a total of 20 structures featured (one on each card). Each card has the sentence: "Can you build ____?". The picture is labeled with the location in the world. Enjoy watching your students build some amazing structures! Some of the featured structures: * Big Ben * Great Wall of China * Taj Mahal * Stonehenge * Eiffel Tower * & more!
National Skyscraper Day is September 3rd, the birthday of Louis Henry Sullivan, the “father of skyscrapers.” To celebrate, we decided to explore all there is to know about skyscrapers, including building one of our own! This activity turns out to be more than just a creative building exercise. It involves teamwork, problem-solving, and some math […]
Enhance your buildings study with these great materials! This is based on Creative Curriculum's Buildings Study. It is broken down by Investigation, with activities for each. You do not have to do the activities in the week it says, use them all throughout your study! It is just easier to follow when broken down. Here is what is included direction pages labels KWL anchor chart Writing pages Blueprint Drawing pages 5 senses poster 5 senses Buildings anchor chart signs for each week Real Pictures for Morning Meetings Weighing pages Measuring pages Posters Types of buildings Parts of a house Mason, construction worker, painter, electrician, architect Building process Building Materials 3 Little Pigs Props 3 Little Pigs STEM building cards Building hunt color page Building shape sort Blocks can you build? Homes around the world Homes past-future Usa landmarks World landmarks Worker tool sort Design our own building pages Air Dry Clay Recipe Strong/weak building sort Roll a shape: Shape building game Room Tally Hunt page Parts of a house sort Parts of house playdoh pages *If you like this product please be sure to leave feedback!* This product is not associated with Creative Curriculum or Teaching Strategies. This product is intended for use in one classroom. If you would like to share it with another room, please purchase an additional license. Lets Connect! Pinterest Instagram
