Types of Homes and Building a School
Central points in teaching this unit are: There are many types of homes; A home gives people shelter and is a place where people and families live; Not all homes are houses, some are apartments, flats or caravans, while in some instances a home may be a boat or a cave.
The pupils are presented with pictures of a selection of house types which they may see in their locality and beyond. Each house type is accompanied by a label explaining a bit about the house type. Preparatory work on house types might be necessary. A visit to a friendly estate agent might yield useful and glossy pictures which would be useful resources for preparatory work or for a more extensive project on homes.
The pupils are asked to divide a copybook page in quarters and with the help of the pictures on the screen, to draw three types of doors in three of the quarters. (Teachers might choose to have already an A4 sheet prepared for the children to assist them in completing this task.) When they go home they draw their own door in the last quarter. This exercise is repeated for windows. Both these activities are to prepare pupils for the main homework activity, a detailed sketch of the front of their own home. These might be displayed in the classroom at a later stage. Obviously the teacher will be aware of certain sensitivities which may exist in relation to housing and will endeavour to protect the dignity of all pupils.
The second exercise asks the pupils to order a montage set of six photographs showing the various stages in the building of a school. This is the order:
1. walls, 2. roof timbers, 3. plastering external walls, 4. slates, 5. external clean up, 6. internal fittings and painting.
Next the pupils are given labels for building materials and they are asked to see if they can identify the material correctly in the photographs by clicking on it.
Finally they are asked to identify the seasons in which the building began (Winter) and ended (Summer).
Discussion here will link with science.
The properties of materials determine where they are used in a home. Can children find the properties of some materials? Can they discover some which are transparent or waterproof? Are carpets suitable as floor coverings? Why? Why are tiles used in bathrooms? What other materials are used in areas where there is water?