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INVITATION How do we help students understand the way basic elements of architecture are used to build a town or city? How do we motivate students to apply shape, patterns, colors, texture, and aesthetics to the development of buildings? How do we direct students to apply basic architectural knowledge to what is happening in their own lives? How do we give students the knowledge to explore elements of art and architecture to learn the geography of their communities? |
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TASKS Students learn the basic elements of architecture through an exploration of shapes, colors, patterns, textures, and building aesthetics and apply this knowledge by creating their own imaginary community. The teacher creates a slideshow using Kid Pix Studio Deluxe or mPOWER or a HyperStudio stack of many different architectural concepts and tests students' prior knowledge. Students will begin to associate many of the learned skills and apply them to the community in which they live. Following an understanding of these concepts, students will work in the computer lab and develop their imaginary cities. |
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TOOLS Computers; the Internet; Sherlock. AppleWorks; HyperStudio or mPOWER; Kid Pix Studio Deluxe. Art Mania 12,000 (optional); iMovie (optional); SimCity (optional). |
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INTERACTIONS The teacher sets the atmosphere by collecting many different boxes and materials for students to use to create a small, visual city in the classroom (refrigerator boxes make great skyscrapers). Students can help paint or decorate the boxes to put them in the architectural mood. The teacher then works with students to help them understand the basic elements of buildings and how each element plays an important role in their construction. Students work in pairs, looking at different buildings on the Internet. Once students have developed a basic understanding of building elements, they use their own artistic and creative skills to develop paintings of an imaginary city or community. |
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STANDARDS To identify the curriculum standards for your state that correlate to this student project, select the state in the popup menu below and then click the Go button. View Detailed Standards in |
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SITUATIONS Students work in the classroom, in the media center, and in the computer lab. The project, including class discussion time and research, will last one week. Students work in the computer lab with the teacher to create their final projects. If possible, the teacher and students can take a field trip to visit local community buildings to explore and research the basic elements of architecture. |
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ASSESSMENT In order to find out what students know about basic design, the teacher assesses prior knowledge with a brainstorming activity and slideshow about buildings. Students discuss what they already know about shapes, sizes, colors, patterns, and other basic elements. During the project, assessment focuses on student retention, association, and development skills and their final project, based on their beginning architectural skills. What did they learn and how did they apply this to their virtual city? The teacher gives the students a checklist to use as they work on their projects so that they know the project expectations. |
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This project focuses on the basic elements that are used in everyday architecture and engineering. Students will develop an understanding of why shapes, size, color, patterns, height, length, and beauty are important in developing buildings. Students will observe many different buildings of different shapes and sizes and explain why these elements are important. Following these learned skills, students will develop their own imaginary communities, complete with buildings of all shapes and sizes, using Kid Pix Studio Deluxe, mPOWER, or HyperStudio. As an option, the teacher can save all files and post student work on the Internet. |
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Phase 1: Build me a skyscraper Begin the project by creating a virtual city in the classroom out of boxes and other materials to help set an architectural atmosphere. Students can help to transform the materials into skyscrapers, gas stations, houses, grocery stores, pet stores, and other buildings found in their community. Following the creation of the classroom city, use an AppleWorks database that lists the basic architectural elements and ask students what elements each of the buildings in the classroom uses. Students can then begin to categorize the buildings by size, shape, color, purpose, and other categories you help them identify. |
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Phase 2: What color is it? Depending on the grade level of the students, consider scheduling a field trip to visit some of the local community buildings. If available, students can use iBook computers to help classify the buildings they visit. Create a HyperStudio or mPOWER presentation ahead of time that has the names of many different buildings in the community. Using Graphic Objects and setting the feature to Draggable, you can create drag and drop fields for students to use. For example, as students visit the fire station, they can go to the card titled "fire station" (you can use clip art images for younger students). Include the categories "color," "shape," "size," and "texture" on the card, as well as items from which the students can choose to match the categories. For example, there may be five different colors, five different shapes, three different sizes (small, medium, large), and five different textures. The students would then drag the characteristics of the building they are observing to the relevant categories. If the fire station is red, students would drag the color red into the box under the "color" category. If they think the building is small, they would drag the picture of the small fire station under the "size" category, and so on. The success of this phase is both teacher preparation and, if possible, additional adult assistance to help the students with the software. If you aren't able to organize a field trip, develop the stack with digital images taken of buildings in the community and use them on each of the cards stated above. |
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Phase 3: Welcome to my community Students take the knowledge they have gained from the prior phases and apply it to the creation of their own virtual community. Students work in the computer lab and use Kid Pix Studio Deluxe, HyperStudio, or mPOWER to create paintings of the buildings they would include if they built their own community. Each student should have the freedom to elaborate as much as possible, but all students should be able to justify why they chose each particular element for their buildings. Also challenge students to give their community a name. |
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Phase 4: Show and tell Ask students to show their communities to the rest of the class and to explain why the chose the elements in their paintings. Why did the students use blue for the schoolhouse? Why green for the church? |
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PREPARATION
Prepare students to use the software necessary for this project. Locate and bookmark Web sites that contain images of buildings for students to visit. Create an AppleWorks database for students to use in the classification of community buildings. Gather boxes of different sizes and other items so that students can build a virtual city in your classroom. Develop a database for students to use when classifying the buildings in the classroom. Organize a field trip and prepare iBook computers for student use. Develop your own imaginary community in Kid Pix Studio Deluxe as an example. |
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OPTIONS AND EXTENSION ACTIVITIES
Post student work on the Internet for the parents and community to visit. Invite architects to speak with the students. Bring in many different objects and let students build their own city. Use software such as SimCity for students to build their own community. Film different buildings in the community and create a desktop movie using iMovie.
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BOOKS Block Building for Children: Making Buildings of the World With the Ultimate Construction Toy by Les Walker Colors & Shapes by David A. Carter Colors, Shapes and Sizes: Basic Skills for Learning by Beth Alley Wise Famous Buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright by Bruce LaFontaine Frank Lloyd Wright: Master Builder by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer (Editor) With David Larkin Skyscraper: The Making of a Building by Karl Sabbagh Skyscrapers by Judith Dupre Skyscrapers: A History of the World's Most Famous and Important Skyscrapers by Judith Dupre |
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INTERNET RESOURCES Pictures of Skyscrapers
Architecture that reaches for the sky
Elements of Design
Commercial Buildings
ArchKIDecture
Architecture for Kids Net Links
Arts/Crafts for Kids
The High Rise Site
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