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Gia Shafer

ECE 251
Activity- Lesson Plan
Lesson Plan

Activity name: Let’s Build a Building!

Approximate length of experience: 15-30 minutes, may go over several days depending on

interest of the students.

Age and number of children: 4 years old group of 16 that will break up into smaller groups

Goal: For students to gain an understanding of what architecture is and their purpose in the

world around them.

Domain: Cognitive

Content: Facts include: What is an architect? What are blueprints? What shapes are used in

buildings? What recyclable items can be used to construct a building?

Vocabulary words include: Builder, construction, construct, design, shapes, buildings, shapes,

circle, triangle, sides, angles, library, homes, schools, markets, blueprint, drawing, planning,

imagination, ideas, residential, rural, city and neighborhoods.

Objectives: Participation in this activity will increase the child’s ability to

1. Use their own ideas and imagination to plan and create a building.

2. Build fine motor skills while designing their blueprints.

3. Build language/literacy skills with new vocabulary.

4. Identify shapes that are used to create a building.


5. Develop an understanding of how to use recyclable items together to express their idea.

Materials: Photos of various buildings: city, residential, rural, farming. Construction paper,

crayons, markers, paint. Recyclable items: milk carton, tissue box, paper tubes, glue, tape,

stapler, paper clips, binder clips, scissors.

Procedure:

Begin lesson with a group discussion: Guess what, today we are going to be architects and

design our own buildings! Buildings come in many sizes and shapes. What kinds of buildings

have you seen? After each child answers the question that wanted to, various pictures of

buildings will be attached to the white board to show shapes in the buildings as well as

similarities and differences between city, residential, rural and farming buildings. Once pictures

are displayed questions will be asked: What building do you like? What do you like about it? Do

you see any shapes in the builds, if so what shapes? What kind of building do you want to make?

Who know what a blue print is? Teacher will shift the discussion into how an architect gets

started by designing a blue print. The teacher will hang photos of blueprints on the white board.

First, we are going to be architects, we will use paper, crayons, pencils and markers to design out

blueprint. After we have created a blueprint we are going to use recycled materials to construct

our building.

In order to connect to the world around them we will look outside at the progress of our

expansion. (Currently we are expanding our building, there are construction workers and

equipment everywhere, the children love it!)


Questions:

What is an architect? (Convergent)

What are shapes do you see in the buildings? (Memory)

Are all buildings the same? (convergent)

What kind of building do you want to make? (Evaluative/ Memory)

What materials will you use to design your blueprint? (Evaluative)

What shapes do you think you will use for your building? (memory)

What recyclable are you going to use to construct your building? (Evaluative)

Next- Paper, markers, crayons and pencils will be used to design our blueprint of our building;

students will design their building, teacher will assist with dictation if needed. Following the

blueprint, we will go over shapes in our drawings that makeup our building, I.e. squares or

rectangles for windows, doors, building shape and triangles for possible roofs, as we talk about

the shapes in our building we will introduce the shapes of the recycled materials we will be using

to create our building, milk cartons, tissue boxes, large boxes, left over construction paper to use

for shapes to put on building, paper towel and TP tubes and binding materials, glue, string, tape,

paper and binder clips and stapler (with teacher supervision).

Instructions: As an architect you may use the recycled materials to construct your building,

using your blueprint to guide in construction.

Simplification:

Of all the pictures of buildings which one do you like? (Evaluative)


What do you like about that building? (Evaluative)

What materials can you use to construct your building? (Evaluative)

Extension:

1. Students can take their time with activity which may last more than 1 day.

2. If students are still interested after construction of their building, they can continue to

construct other buildings to add to the first one.

3. This activity can be offered during interest centers to continue with the topic.

Evaluation Method:

1. Written observations from their writing/drawings of blueprint

2. Collection of work

3. Photographs and child dictations

What Next: The extension would become a project based learning project where the children

can place their buildings together to develop a city. From there options are limitless depending

on the student’s interests. The teachers can help support the creative flow by asking questions

like: Does your city have a name? What else should be in your city? Possible answers: school,

parks, Target, Chucky Cheese… Are there any rules? The teacher will provide open ended

materials for children to collaborate together and develop their city.

Evaluation of appropriateness of the category (type) of questions used: To meet the needs of

all students I used a variety of categories and both narrow and board questions. I used memory

questions so students recall information (What shapes do you see in the buildings?) Asking

students convergent questions let all who wanted to participate give an answer without their
being a “correct” answer. (What is an architect?) In both of these categories I kept the questions

to a minimum, my goal is not to evaluate the student’s knowledge but to build self-esteem of

topic knowledge and group participation. Asking several evaluative questions will allow me to

evaluate each student’s knowledge about the topic mater and I will be able to teach to the

individual child. In order to give myself a correct assessment I realize I did not include any

divergent questions. This could have easily been included when discussion the use of recyclable

to construct their building. What would happen if we did not use glue to hold the tubes together?

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