These sequential lessons will occur after introduction of houses, neighborhoods, and maps through whole group shared reading and small group guided reading instruction using literature focused on these subjects. Some suggestions are in the student reading list within this curriculum.
Lesson One
Objective: The students will learn to use geometric shapes to represent furniture in their floor plans in lesson two.
Materials: construction paper, scissors, pencils, cardboard tracers of squares, rectangles, and circles predetermined to fit a completed floor plan, envelopes
Procedure: After a brief introduction explaining floor plans as maps of rooms, invite the students to discuss the floor plan of their own classroom. Start with the students identifying the pieces of furniture in the classroom. These pieces will be represented by a shape and a color. As a class, count the number of desks, decide the shape (square or rectangle) and using precut tracer pieces, have the students cut the “desks” out of construction paper. Continue with other furniture pieces, such as teacher desk, computer tables, bookshelves, reading areas. Discuss the need to use different colors for different types of furniture. This initial lesson will end with their collection of shapes being stored in an envelope.
Lesson Two
Objective: The students will create floor plan of classroom and be able to identify the location of their desk.
Materials: copy of floor plan indicating doorways, windows, envelopes containing students’ work from Lesson 1, glue, foil star stickers
Procedure: Each student will need one copy of the empty floor plan. It is important the paper is oriented correctly on the student’s desks before they begin. Guide the students through the placement of their cutout pieces to represent the classroom floor plan. Before any gluing, check that the location of the pieces is correct. When they have finished gluing, give them a foil star sticker to identify the location of their own desk.
Lesson 3
Objective: The students will walk the playground and create a “floor plan” or map to show where equipment is located.
Materials: large art paper to represent area of playground with perimeter indicated
Procedure: This is intended as a whole class experience. As in Lessons 1 and 2, this will go in stages, first identifying the shapes needed, how many of each, and what on the playground needs to be included in the floor plan. Again using the geometric shapes of square, rectangle, circle, triangle have the students determine what will be representative shapes. Working in teams, have them make the playground equipment, picnic tables, trees, landscaping, fences, gates, etc. from construction paper as before. They will glue their pieces onto the large map of the playground.
Lesson 4
Objective: The students will draw floor plan of school and identify their classroom within -- walk perimeter of school.
Materials: large art paper to represent area of school, markers, if possible the architect’s floor plan of the building from the building administrator
Procedure: The students will walk the perimeter of the school to generate a basic understanding of the whole building. Discussion of sides being longer or maybe not just flat walls, where are there openings or different shapes? The goal is to have the students identify the general footprint of the building, recreate it on paper and place their classroom within the context of the building. As a class, with the teacher guiding, draw the shape of the school placing the classroom in its location.
Lesson 5
Objective: The students will draw the elevation of homes seen from our school
Materials: clipboards, paper, sketching pencils, colored pencils
Procedure -- This activity can be done from the playground at our school. The students will pick one building, not the school, to draw with details, incorporating geometry and symmetry. Emphasize the importance of using the whole paper so there will be room for detail. Demonstrate by drawing the house too small and not being able to fit all the windows, doors, etc. Show then a positive example and how much easier the project becomes. This is a several day lesson, having the students either continue a drawing or begin a new one. They can generate a collection of different neighborhood homes or the same house drawn several times. This can begin the discussion of similarities and differences that the students begin to notice which will lead into the next lesson.
Lesson 6
Objective: The students will join in a walking trip to identify how many homes on our block street by street to determine similarities and differences (old, new, materials, size, porch, chimney, windows)
Materials: clipboards, pencils, chart of similarities and differences
Procedure: A pre-activity to this lesson would be a discussion about what the students have noticed about houses. Do they all have chimneys? Are they all the same height? Are some older looking and why? Decide what the students will be looking for and create a list. With several chaperones, enjoy a walking trip of the neighborhood. The students will collect data using tally marks on their charts to note the characteristics of the houses in the area. After the fact finding to tour use the data to create on general chart to post with all the data collected by the students,
Lesson 7
Objective: The students will create homes and other buildings with varied materials in a combined classroom project.
Materials: small milk cartons, juice boxes, small boxes, felt glue, markers, colored paper, cardboard pieces, 2-3 large foam core boards or similarly sturdy base
Procedure: Begin collecting materials to create the diorama several days before the project. This project will take several days of preparing the houses and other buildings, attaching them to the neighborhood (foam core board) and creating streets and trees and other added neighborhood details. This should look like a model of the neighborhood where the students have been working and learning. Although exactness is not quite possible, the general ideas should be apparent, homes of different sizes and colors, neighborhood buildings, streets they have visited, their school and playground.
Lesson 8
Objective: The students will follow a map to locate “treasure” to demonstrate orienteering skills.
Materials: students maps of the classroom, map of the playground
Procedure: This could be designed as a scavenger hunt. Generate a list of directions to be given orally to small groups of students. An example might be “Go to the fourth desk from the door, from that location turn to the second bookcase, walk five steps forward, stop, turn to the reading table, walk three steps, look under the rug for the treasure.” Have the students use their resources from the previous lessons to remember the locations of things to use for reference spots.
Lesson 9
Objective: The students will create their version of a Sanborn map using information from their created neighborhood.
Materials: copy of a Sanborn map; large art paper; construction paper in colors olive, blue, pink, yellow, and gray; glue; scissors; colored pencils; rulers
Procedure: Discuss the idea and use of a Sanborn map and what makes it an important tool for firefighters and historians. Identify the need to use the color choices to show construction materials. Using the prepared neighborhood from Lesson 7 as the guide, have the students create their own “Sanborn” style map. The students may add labels to show street names or other landmark information.