Architecture / Building Design

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- Caillou
- "It's Cold Outside! Brrr!"
Caillou and Andre decide to build a snow fort. It's not easy, but they put a lot of effort into building it. After a snow fight with Sarah, they decide the fort could be higher and everyone pitches in to help. - Cyberchase - "Model Behavior"
To protect themselves from Hacker's constant attempts to capture cybersite Happily-Ever-After, the King and his fairy-tale subjects construct a glass Skywall to keep Hacker out of the kingdom. But Hacker unfolds a brilliant scheme to crack open the Skywall - using the Wicked Witch's Voice! Can the kids use models to outwit Hacker before Wicked sings?!!
Do in Class
- Boohbah: Building Blocks - Experiment with ways to build structures out of blocks.
- Clifford: Lets Color! - Print, color, cut-out, and build houses from Birdwell Island.
- Curious George: Discovery Guide: Under Construction: Engineering Investigation - Investigate how engineers make skyscrapers, flagpoles, telephone poles and street signs stand up. Explore ways to build stable structures using boxes and other found objects.
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Cyberchase: Build a Teepee - Use newspaper and paper plates to make a teepee large enough to sit in.
- Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: Dollhouse - Use a cardboard box to build and furnish a doll house.
- ZOOM: Build a Dam - Discover the unique engineering properties of a dam by constructing a model dam using popsicle sticks, pebbles and sand.
- ZOOM: ZOOMsci - Future City - Build a model city of the future.
- ZOOM: ZOOMsci - Tall Sturdy Building - Build the tallest tower you can out of stale marshmallows and spaghetti.
Play Online
- Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: Build a Neighborhood - Investigate the characteristics of a community while creating a neighborhood in this interactive activity.
- PBS Parents Guide to Early Math: Building Sandcastles - Match a three-dimensional shape with its two-dimensional outline.
Read
- Creating Clever Castles & Cars: From Boxes and Other Stuff
By Mari Rutz Mitchell and Michael P. Kline
Published March 2006 by Williamson Books
Kids already know what to do with big cardboard boxes, but this construction guide will give them even more ideas: a house with many rooms, a milk jug igloo, a beaver lodge, a bathtub submarine, a general store, circus tent, and more—41 projects in all. Activities are rated for difficulty. The introduction includes building tips and lists supplies and accessories. Appendices suggest web resources and groups projects by challenge level. - Sky Boys: Building the Empire State Building
By Deborah Hopkinson and James Ransome
Published February 2006 by Random House Children's Books
During the Great Depression a boy and his out of work father watch the Empire State Building rise four and a half stories a week. When it is finished, it is the tallest building in the world and will remain so for more than forty years, until the construction of the World Trade Center. This book commemorates the men who built it.
*As most PBS children's programs offer one year extended taping rights for teachers, please feel free to tape them now and save them for use in your classroom during the school year.