Build a HOUSE WITH A SHARK IN A ROOF
Design an ISLAMIC ORNAMENTAL PATTERN. Read about Girih patterning and see the link on the page to the online Girih designer
Make a MODULAR TETRAHEDRON (thanks to Quarky Science!)
Build a FLEXAGON (What the heck is a flexagon?) with very clear and slow instructions on YouTube
Make a CITY FROM TOILET PAPER ROLLS
Make a HUGE LOCAL MAP to color and discuss the Built Environment
Build a simple building and ground to discover how BUILDINGS STAND UP TO EARTHQUAKES
Make a ROOM FROM A TIN MINT BOX
Make a GEODESIC DOME
Make a SANDCASTLE
Build a TOOTHPICK STRUCTURE
Draw a FLOORPLAN
Build a FANTASTIC CARDBOARD HOUSE
Make a little PAPER CITY and color them in!
WRITINGS ABOUT KIDS LEARNING THROUGH ARCHITECTURE
1. The archKIDecture Build IT! Exhibit Project by Julie Cowan in the Nexus Network Journal
This essay describes how an interactive exhibit supports learning a myriad of concepts written by …well, by us.
2. Kids/Block/Learning by Patricia Gaffney Ansel at the Yale-New Have Teachers Institute
This essay provides an excellent defense of why all kids should use building blocks. Blocks of any sort are excellent self activity that can teach kids any number of skills.
CLASSES & PROGRAMS ABOUT ARCHITECTURE + KIDS
New York
The Skyscraper Museum has exhibits and programs for families
OTHER WEB LINKS ABOUT ARCHITECTURE + KIDS
Want to be an Architect? A website to explain why it might be interesting to choose this career.
CURRICULA FOR ARCHITECTURE FOR KIDS
These have been developed by various teachers and architects across the US. They get to be sort of repetitive, but there are gems in each one:
About Angkor Wat: Architecture of Cambodia is a great full program and lesson plan designed by the National Endowment for the Humanities
CUBE lesson plans from Kansas City.
Architecture: It’s Elementary! by the AIA of Michigan and the Michigan Architecture Foundation
KinderArt – curricula for elementary kids.
Fantastic Pinterest collection of idea for kids.
KidsThinkDesign has a good architecture section.
A Barbie Architect Doll workshop designed by the AIA.
Learning By Design by the Boston Society of Architects, which is mostly a list
of programs that they offer but there might be some new ideas for you
List of lesson plans from The Skyscraper Museum