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.

Simple 3D Cardboard Houses for Kids

Understanding the difference between two and three dimensions is made easier when you go from making a flat thing to a 3D model. For my young art students' second architecture project, we went from one wall to four walls before adding a roof. Again, the building process begins when I ask each student if they wanted a tall or short house, and then ask what kind of roof they wanted. The houses looked very similar to their flat counter-parts, but they lined up to make a little neighborhood, and this made it easy to talk about materials. I brought in linoleum and ceramic tile. They could here the different sound each surface material made when it was tapped on the table. Feeling wood and the bricks on the outside of the building made for another interesting comparison, since both bricks and tiles are made from clay. 

We get into the concept of form following function as I explain to them about the benefit of having sloped roofs in keeping rain and snow from sitting on top of the house, and the fact that eaves can keep water away from the siding and foundation. I tell them that 400 years ago, when people stood under the eaves to get out of the rain, they could hear what was being said from open windows, which was how the word "eaves-dropping" originated.

Little kids love to play along as I retell the "3 Little Pigs." I only half-way tell, it since they know the lines, "Little Pig, little pig let me in!" and "Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin!" well enough to finish them. And even a non-verbal student blew on the house every time the wolf said he'd huff and puff. We removed one of the 3 houses for each phase and made sure that the last house had a chimney. It only takes a few minutes to incorporate language arts, or vocabulary (such as surface treatments and building supplies) in a way that will help them understand the world around them. Art classes are about so much more than learning how to make art.

 

Cardboard Gingerbread Houses & Paper Snowflakes

 Nothing beats edible gingerbread houses for hands-on seasonal craft projects, but when an emergency bulletin board situation arrises, 2D versions can made quickly and easily. Cardboard is the perfect gingerbread color, and white paint is the perfect substitute for piped icing. 

The thing I love most about this simple 30-minute project is the endless variety that can come out of it. It's a great time to talk about parts of a house: door, window, stairs, shutters, roof, chimney, etc. But you can also discuss the importance of shape. A barn is usually a different shape than a castle or a church. The front of a house is different from the side. A rectangle can be a two-story town house, or a southwestern ranch house. Windows can be rectangles, squares, circles, arches. The window size may vary depending on whether it is a store front or a log cabin.  So even though it's an easy and straight forward craft, it brings up such lofty concepts as form and function in architecture. And even very young and totally blind students can choose and paint the house shape before choosing, placing and gluing smaller architectural elements.

Snowflakes are another one of those required childhood craft (see hand turkey post). Some of my students struggle with scissors. Those of us with vision learn so much from observation, but it may be difficult for those who are blind to know how to even hold scissors with the thumb in the small hole and the fingers in the larger hole, thumb up and fingers down, unless someone teaches you explicitly. My students also tend to use the tips of the scissors and close them completely with each snip, when it requires much less effort to slide the paper back towards the thick part of the scissor blades and just close the scissors slowly and partially while maneuvering the paper to make small shapes. For students who scissors are a serious hazard, I just had them fold the paper, which  is a challenge in and of itself. Snowflakes have six points, so getting the 60 degree angle means folding the paper in half, and then finding the center of the fold, making a cone to get complete overlap from the back and two front flaps. Then creasing before cutting the corners will help get a circle with six sections. Some students make the point of their triangle on the folded side and then are surprised when their finished snowflake is two semi-circles instead of one whole. By cutting a V shape on the opened, rounded edge of the triangle, and then cutting a few half diamonds or half hearts on the folded edge, a snowflake can be made with three or four cut shapes. Once a child gets the hang of it, they can become a one-person snow factory and turn a window or tree into a winter wonderland.

Graham Cracker Houses

I have made graham cracker houses every December since I was a child. These are used as center pieces as well as gifts to be given away while Christmas caroling. In high school, I had friends come for a house building party, and now as a mother of teens we continue to make it an event. There have been several years when I have built 25 houses or so to take into my son's class as a party activity, and once, I think my friends and I assembled about 75 for a church party.

Last week, I had my students decorate their own houses as part of our architecture unit. We watched a video about Frank Lloyd Wright's amazing house, Falling Waters, and discuss the importance of architecture in our daily lives. We talked about the parts of a house (eaves, balcony, columns, etc), and why building designs include floor plans and elevation plans. Each student got a pre-fab house with their own royal icing bag, and candy collection. There were plenty of extra graham crackers for garages, car ports, dog houses, chimney's etc. One student even decided to add on a second story. Experiencing the curriculum in 3D is very important to blind and visually impaired students, and making something edible ups student engagement quite a bit. Happy house building!