Pre-K: Little Architects

Pre-K is currently in their building unit.  During this unit, this is an opportunity for children to learn

about how buildings are made, the materials that can be used, people and tools involved in the

process of building homes and business, and observing similarities and differences between the

design of various buildings.  Once we had accumulated some knowledge of different features of

buildings, we set off on a walking field trip within the Goodrich neighborhood to see the unique

attributes that each home possesses.  

When we start our walk, children are provided with a clipboard and a sheet to

document their observations.  They had two focus questions while we were studying the homes: 

Are all windows rectangles?  And: Can houses have more than one door?  As we set off on our

walk, we began discussing the interesting shapes we were seeing in the windows: 

many rectangle and square windows, a few semicircles, and an ornate oval window! 

We even saw a small porthole window that was shaped like a stop sign! Children were excited to document all of the interesting window shapes that they were observing in the community. 

They quickly learned that not all windows are rectangles.  

As we walked along, we also counted doors on the homes.  Every home had one door, until

we got to the very end of our walk, and one house had TWO doors!  Children quickly

documented the side-by-side doors on their sheet.  They were very excited to see that some

houses have two doors, and to take their sheets home to their families to show what they

saw on their walking field trip.  

They had other talking points to share as well.  Not only did we see beautiful homes with lots

of shapes, but we saw some of the first flowers popping up for Spring, a beautiful Magnolia

tree blossoming, different materials like siding, brick and stone, and some very pretty lawn

decorations.  No two homes were exactly alike.  This walk was a valuable and authentic way

for the children to apply what they were learning to the environment that they see every day.

Comparing notes with a friend.

Students document the house with two doors.

Discussing some of the windows that we have observed.  This house has windows that 

go from the ground all the way to the top of the house!

Studying the different windows on this house.  We are documenting the various styles 

on our clipboards.

We had a great time on our walk!