Changes Over Time

Submitted by: Jill Swedlow, Cameron School, Chicago, Illinois
UNIT: Architecture- Changes over Time - Language Arts/Social Studies
Lesson Plan: Changes over Time - Community
Grade Level: Kindergarten

 

This lesson plan is for teachers of grades K-8 using architecture as a dynamic tool for teaching the core elementary subjects: language arts, fine arts, social studies.

 

CHANGES OVER TIME

What is changing or staying the same outside our windows?

 

Theme:

This lesson explores how our neighborhood changes over time. Using one of the children's books recommended in the Resources list, students will use ideas gathered from their own classroom windows to view these architectural and seasonal changes over time.

 

Student Objectives:

1. Describe what is changing and what is staying the same outside the window.

2. Name three things that changed in the story read to the class.

3. Demonstrate an understanding of change over time by drawing the view from school and home windows.

Activities

• Draw and record the view outside the classroom windows.

• Type

• Indoor, desktop activities

• Time-frame

• Two class sessions of 20 minutes each

Materials

• A children's story with a place that changes over time (see recommendations below)

• Toilet paper tubes or similar objects (one or two per student)

• Crayons

Resources

• Window by Jeannie Baker

• The Backyard by John Collier

• The House on Maple Street by Bonnie Pryor

• When I Was Built by Jennifer Thermes

• Prairie Town by Bonnie Geisert

• The Little House by Virginia Lee

Activity Procedures

Day One

Read the class one of the books listed in the Resource list. Talk about the changes that occurred in the landscape and the building. List some of these changes on the board as the students identify three things that changed in the story and three things that remained the same. Make the connection between the people in the story growing and changing and the neighborhood growing and changing. Have the students retell the story in their own words.

 

Day Two

Give each child a toilet paper tube to focus their attention on specific objects outside of the window. Discuss what they see outside the classroom windows.

Have them draw what they have viewed through the window. When the students are finished drawing, have them dictate a few sentences to you to write on the frame around the window's view.

Post the finished drawing around the classroom windows. Make predictions about which object might change or be temporary. (Example: a particular tree vs. a car parked along the street). In the weeks or months to come, point out the differences between what they drew and what now appears in the view out the window.

 

Extensions

For a home project, have the students draw what they see from their bedroom window. When their drawings are brought back to class, talk about the similarities and differences.

Talk about the different kinds of windows in your home or school. Do the windows open and close? How? Why? What is the shape of the window? Why do building have windows?

 

Vocabulary

• change

• seasons

• past, present and future

• window head

• window sill

• window frame

• window pane

Academic Standards

1. Read with understanding and fluency

2. Understand and analyze events, trends, individuals, and movements shaping the history of the state, country, and other nations