Cardboard City

Each of my self-contained class students (multiple complex-needs children) began learning about architecture in my art class with a flat cardboard house. Then they made a 3D cardboard house, and a 3D house that would be part of a larger piece. In the U.S., most of our homes are free standing, in fact about 80 million of about 130 million homes are single family houses according to statista.com. But in cities like New York, most everyone will share a wall and floor or ceiling of their home with other people. We stacked boxes and fitted them with ladders and stairs according to each child's preference. Fire escapes are a safety feature you know. Flat roofs are great for growing urban gardens, having dinner, and enjoying the skyline.

It's nice to balance personal, individual projects to take home, with collaborations. It's a great way to talk about how working together on projects is important, just like is like working to get along with one another is important when living in a densely populated area. A middle school student used a cup and a paper towel roll to make water towers...for the good of the whole.

Kid Craft: Tactile Cardboard Houses

 Architecture starts simple when you're dealing with kids who are working at pre-school level of cognitive abilities. And because my students are blind, and may have never seen a house in it's entirity, I started my architecture unit with the parts of a house. Walls, roof, doors, and windows. I'd ask each student if they wanted a tall or short house, a triange or rectangle roof, a single or a double door. How many windows? How many panes in each window? Would you like shutters or a window box? What about a chimney for Santa? They make choices and glue each piece that I cut out cardboard according to their commands. What we end up with is a tactile version of an elevation of a house. Most kids know how to draw a recognizable house by kindergarten, but without vision, this is the next best thing. These houses are  building blocks for our unit to continue, but they'd also make a fun craft for any preschooler.