Students will understand that there are many different habitats for humans, animals, and things.

Students will: 

1. Use geometric shapes to illustrate their own homes.
2. Design an interior view of four rooms in their home.
3. Learn five new vocabulary terms: habitat, architect, landscaping, interior, and exterior.

Directions

Day 1-2 

Step 1: In a whole group setting, introduce the lesson by reading aloud the book A House Is a House for Me. Ask students: What is a habitat? What does your habitat look like? Brainstorm with students the types of homes that people might live in (e.g. house, apartments, duplex, town home). Discuss the different kinds of homes they heard about in the book. Ask students to describe the designs of their homes or homes they've seen. Write their responses on chart paper or board.

Step 2: Further the discussion and ask the students to describe the details of a house, apartment building, etc. Discuss the different types of shapes they might find in homes, such as squares, triangles, rectangles, circles, and ovals. Illustrate these shapes on chart paper or board.

Step 3: Explain to students that today they will pretend to be architects, home designers, and will design a home for themselves. It can be the home they live in or an imaginary home. Share your model with the students and briefly discuss each step they will take to illustrate their home.

Step 4: In a whole class setting use your completed illustration to model the following steps with students as they create their homes. Distribute construction paper.

Step 5: Instruct students to select a dark crayon and draw the shape of their home on the white construction paper. Encourage them to use a variety of large and simple shapes. They may need to use rulers to draw straight lines. Refer to the shapes you previously drew on the chart paper or board during the earlier discussion.

Step 6: Still using a dark crayon, instruct students to draw smaller shapes that represent details of their homes, like doors, doorknobs, windows, chimneys, shutters, shingles, brick, and so on. Use simple shapes for drawing things around the home. Introduce the concept of landscaping — the greenery and yard surrounding the home. Guide students to draw in any grass, bushes, flowers, plants, curtains, sky, and more to make their home complete.

Step 7: Using plenty of water and a paintbrush, instruct students to lightly paint a wash of watercolor on top of the crayon drawing. Talk about how the wax of the crayon will resist the paint so that the drawing's details will show. Tell students to use different colors of paint for different areas of the home.

Step 8: When finished, mount the projects on black paper, if you wish.

Day 3-4

Step 1: Remind students that the previous lesson was about pretending to be architects and drawing a picture of the exterior — or outside view — of a home. Explain that today they will pretend to be architects again and draw an interior — or inside view — of their home. Share your floor plan with the students.

Step 2: Tell students to think of four important rooms they have in their home. Ask volunteers to share. Write the names of these rooms on chart paper or board. Discuss the kinds of things that one would find in each of these rooms (e.g. refrigerator and stove in the kitchen, table in the dining room or kitchen).

Step 3: Distribute construction paper to each student. Using your model, show students how to divide the paper into four equal sections with their pencils. Once they have correctly divided the paper, they may go over the pencil lines with a dark crayon or marker.

Step 4: Instruct students to label each room they illustrate at the top of its section. Then, tell them to draw pictures of what's in each room of their house. Remind them to use simple shapes, to color in the items, and to draw in their family members if they wish.

Step 5: Circulate the classroom as students work to help them add details to each room. Ask the following questions: Do you share a room with a brother or sister? What's your favorite thing about each room? What's your favorite object in each room? What color are the walls? In which room does your family spend most of their time?

Step 6: Once students have completed their rooms' interior view, they're ready to share their exterior and interior illustrations of their homes with the class. Afterwards, post them in the classroom. Students can share their architect illustrations during Back to School Night.

Supporting All Learners

This lesson is achievable for most students because of its art emphasis and limited writing.

Lesson Extensions

Invite a local architect to visit your class and share architectural drawings and house plans.

Home Connection

Prior to this lesson, you may want to instruct students to tour their own homes and write a few sentences or illustrations of things they notice all the time.

Assignments

Illustrate the exterior view of their home. Illustrate the interior view of four rooms of their home.

Evaluation

Did students recognize the diversity of different habitats? Were students able to complete their work with little assistance?