Homes Around the World Investigation

A number of students told me at the beginning of the school year their hope was to learn about the world.  However, the world is not exactly an easy concept for five or six year olds who are still trying to understand the difference between Charlottesville and Virginia to fully grasp.  I wondered how I could make the topic of the world more concrete and meaningful for them.  Our school had also been engaging in professional development around topics of diversity and inclusivity.  These conversations got me thinking about my role as an educator who puts great value into growing what I do out of students' interests versus my responsibility to help grow my students' thinking by exposing them to topics they might not be naturally drawn to themselves.   And finally, I was hoping to begin an investigation that would get more of my students building with recycled materials so they could grow more comfortable engaging in the design process independently.  Thus, our homes around the world investigation was born...

We began as close to home as possible - by carefully sketching and painting our own houses.  There was a lot of detailed fine motor work that went into their artwork!

I knew tools would be an appealing topic for a bunch of my students, so that's where we headed next. Books as well as a time-lapsed video of a house being built got us thinking about how all that hard work gets done...

The more ways (art, music, stories, building, writing, etc.) children engage with their learning, the more likely they are to actually make sense of and remember what they've learned.  So, of course we built items from our chart 3 dimensionally too...

a hammer, 

a saw,

a construction truck, and a brick wall made through a lot of teamwork...

I'm always trying to find ways to get kids to think deeply and critically, so we began a conversation about the needs vs. wants in a house. Then I put our chart aside because I had big plans to revisit it in order to assess growth as our investigation unfolded.

Hmm...our "needs" ideas were a little blown out of the water as we watched a man build a house using only nature and his bare hands.  I've never seen kids in such awe as they watched a video!

House building and house/construction play started popping up on its own during their choice time.

One student was so proud that she knew all about blueprints, and this word kept coming up over and over in our conversations.  So, we decided to learn more about them.  I was afraid drawing blueprints by thinking about a house from a  top-down perspective would be too complex for kindergarteners, but the kids definitely proved me wrong. Think about all they perceptual skills they were developing as they designed homes!

I came across this book and knew it would be a perfect springboard for creativity in my classroom. Not only did the kids LOVE the book (and ask to hear it over and over and over!), but they couldn't wait to get started designing their own rooms.  The only directives given were that each room needed a theme and in invention inside.  The kids thought of everything from a toothbrush room containing a robot hand that gives you your toothpaste to a princess room with a magic mirror on the wall.  I was blown away by their enthusiasm, their creativity, and their ability to work on such a small shoebox-sized scale.  I had originally planned to attach their rooms together to make our own house, but the rooms quickly became too complex...and the kids kept wanting to work on them over and over again. 

A number of students worked on their rooms during free moments for days to come, which led to a meaningful and transformative conversation about revisiting and constantly tweaking and improving our work (what an important concept!).  In fact, this mindset has now become second-nature to the way we tackle projects and challenges in our classroom.  We realize that our work can always be altered and improved.  It's hard to imagine five and six year olds focusing and working on anything for five consecutive days, but they can definitely do it!

One of the most impressive parts of the entire project was when the kids took turns sharing and then hearing about each other's rooms.  The kids were so engaged and polite, and they used such friendly and encouraging language with each other!

Before we headed off for Thanksgiving break we worked together to create a large bubble map of all the different types of places to live in Charlottesville.  I wanted to make sure the children were conscious of how many different ways there are to live, and I was wowed by everything they thought of - from UVA dorms to log cabins in the mountains to homeless shelters to townhomes to apartment buildings downtown.  In order to encourage the kids to think about what a true "gift" a home actually is, I told them about Habitat for Humanity.  We looked at pictures of all types of volunteers building Habitat homes, and we even found a picture of one of the student's grandfathers working on a Habitat house in North Carolina. 

One thing I know for sure is that kindergarteners LOVE stuffed animals.  In order to ease the transition back into school after a long Thanksgiving break, everyone brought in a favorite furry friend and built a home for it.  The kids planned out what their furry friend's house would both need and want, and then they got to working building it.

Once again, many students worked on their house for days and days. 

The best part was once again seeing, hearing about, and being inspired by our classmates' clever designs.

With winter vacation looking, it was time to move into the world portion of our investigation. Our first job was learning basic information about the various continents (books and some You Tube videos/songs were good for this), and our second job was working in groups to help create and label a giant map of the world.

Several video clips and a series of pictures sparked a conversation about how homes look different all over the world.  Each kid chose a photograph of a home from somewhere far away.  They interacted with their photos by looking closely and then sketching the details.  

Needless to say, I was blown away by the amount of time and care they put into creating each picture as well as by how closely their art work matched the original photo.  Pretty impressive for kindergarteners!

The kids were also wowed by each other's pictures and loved walking around getting to look at them all.

Their building skills were growing by leaps and bounds, so I knew they were prepared for the challenge of trying to build an actual home from around the world.  Several kids struggled with trying to make their house look like the original (it was much easier for them to create whatever they wanted), but in the end everyone persevered...

In order to get the kids to think deeply about what it might feel like to live in such a different home, we picked a picture to wonder all about.  It was fascinating listening to them wonder aloud and then hypothesize to try and answer each other's wonders.

Winter break was just days away, and their energy and attention had turned to our runaway gingerbread men and the traps they were busy building to try and catch them.  Nevertheless, we managed to squeeze in a final culminating activity by revisiting the original needs/wants list.  I was SO curious to hear how their thinking had (or hadn't) evolved as their knowledge of different types of houses had evolved.  I challenged pairs of students to talk, disagree, explain their thinking, and then ultimately agree on the four (and only four) things a home MUST have in order to be a place where people can live and be happy.  

Partners brought their lists to the carpet, shared, debated with each other (you wouldn't believe how complex and well thought out their reasonings were!), and together our class ultimately agreed on five things (there was a two-way tie which pushed our final number to five) - food, roof, walls, foundation, and love.  If only I had thought to record their brilliant discussions!  

Not only did this investigation strengthen their design and creation skills and play into their interests in the world, but hopefully it also opened their eyes just a bit to the many differences (and similarities too) that make our world such a wonderful place. 

Now, time to go catch those gingerbread men...