Architecture

Our architecture project has kept us so busy for the last few months. We just kept finding so many things to do and see. We read, drew, painted, wrote, measured, built and worked on geometry. We went to see the Space Needle, EMP, Smith Tower and Columbia Tower.

We had four excellent visitors: Tim Rhodes, a local architect, came in and talked to us about his experiences, we told him what we have learned and then we got to use his tools for about two hours. Then we had Ella’s mom, Anja, who is an Engineer talk to us about how they work with the Architects and about foundation. Then Adah’s dad, Alon came in and talked to us about city planning, our role in our city and how they work with Engineers to help build the city. Then we had Cameron’s dad, Ryan come in and talk about being a Contractor. The kids really wanted everyone to come back and be there on the same day, so they could talk to each other. Everyone was so engaging and the kids were so interested.

The kids each chose a structure to study. We created stories about the structures we chose and built our chosen structures with small wooden pieces. We also added our learned facts to the structures. The finale for our project came in the form of a gallery walk to show off all our work and to wrap up this project.

As a part of our project Lisa’s group spent a good deal of time studing about goemetric shapes, estimation and measurement. My group also worked on measurement and estimation as well as focusing on the tools we use to measure and what these tools represent. We also worked with the base ten blocks and workied very hard on our base ten system of numbers as well as place value. I think it has been difficult and rewarding for everyone.

We made this project to be so experiencial. I’m so glad we were able to see so many buildings up close and personal. Being in the Columbia Tower really allowed for us to see so much of our city. I know we all learned so much about how the city works and how much goes into every aspect of building.