A House Is a House for Me Project

See reference list at the end of the page

	Part One: Student Word Sleuths

What types of houses do you and your friends live in? What other kinds of buildings do people use for their homes? Add these words to those in the chart below.

Discuss these questions: Why do people have houses? What materials can be used to build a home? How do houses reflect the climate and resources of the area? What are the various parts of a house? Which rooms do you think are most important and why?

Review these vocabulary: words which are frequently used in our discussions or while reading about Communities. Write class definitions for these words and post them for students to see throughout the unit.

	Part Two: Student Architects

Examine the buildings that people around the world use as homes.

Look at some photos of United States homes that are found in the United States.

Next, look at Houses around the World. How are these dwellings similar to the one you live in? How are they different? Which seems most similar? Which seems most different? Which house would you like to live in for a week? Why? Which house would you least like to live in for a week? Why/why not?

Examine the buildings that people around the world may one day use as homes. Houses of the Future

Finally, take photos of each other and insert the photo into a Kid Pix template named "a house for me" with a caption that reads "And a house is a house for me! Using Kid Pix, draw the exterior or outside of the house. Name the file "exterior". On a second screen, draw the a map of your favorite room in your house. Name the file "interior". Assemble the first three pages of a Kid Pix slide show using the photo screen, followed by the exterior and interior slides.

Part Three: Student Scientists

Read the book A House is a House for Me by Mary Ann Hoberman. Discuss the different types of animal homes and why that habitat suits that animal. Complete the Internet Treasure Hunt Hunting for Animal's Homes. Use AppleWorks word processing to write a sentence that describes the match between your assigned animal and its habitat. This page is your contribution to the class book.

Additional information can be found for many of the animals at Zoobooks.com

Coloring Pages are available at National Geographic Coloring Pages

Additional Animals for the Internet Treasure Hunt are listed here:

		Forest Does the koala sleep more hours than or fewer hours than most humans? How many hours does it sleep? When does it sleep?
		Ocean How does a killer whale swim that is different from the way a shark swims?
		Grasslands How does a zorilla hunt for food?
		Grasslands   The giraffe faces a serious problem when it drinks. What is the problem and why must the giraffe be careful while drinking?
		Desert The Gila Monster is a large, venomous lizard. What creatures including people should be afraid of its poison?
		Pond What do painted turtles do during a summer day? What do they do on a winter day?
		Arctic   How does an Emperor Penguin stay warm in the cold climate of Antarctica?
		Arctic Why does the Arctic Fox use camouflage? How does this animal camouflage itself?
		Arctic The musk ox shares many physical features with a common farm animal. What animal is that and what characteristics do they share?

Complete and print the Kidspiration template: A House is a House for Me! Design a Kid Pix slide using the template provided to illustrate an original example that might be included in Mary Ann Hoberman's book, A House is a House for Me!

Materials and Ideas for this set of activites was drawn from the following websites.

Teaching About Our Homes and Neighborhoods

Homes around the World a webquest by Stephanie Ashley

Houses Around the World by Haga Library Inc.

Houses of the Future part of Sydney Olympic Park

Activity for the book A House Is a House for Me by Nancy Mead

A House Is a House for Me webquest by www.prek-12engineering.org

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Where do you live?, a webquest by Christina Micek

Hunting for Animals' Homes

posted 1/2/06