Everything You Need for a Treehouse
In this lesson, children will design and build models of treehouses.
Learning Goals:
This lesson will help children meet the following educational standards:
- Demonstrate curiosity about the world and begin to use the practices of science and engineering to answer questions and solve problems
- Explore concepts and information about the physical, earth and life sciences
- Understand important connections and concepts in science and engineering
Learning Targets:
After this lesson, children should be more proficient at:
- Developing beginning skills in the use of science and engineering practices such as observing, asking questions, solving problems, and drawing conclusions
- Identifying, describing and comparing the physical properties of objects
- Exploring the effect of force on objects in and outside of the early childhood environment
- Understanding rules to follow when investigating and exploring
- Using nonstandard and standard scientific tools for investigation
Step 1: Gather materials.
- The book, Everything You Need for a Treehouse, by Carter Higgins
- Cardboard cores from paper towel rolls
- Clay
- Craft sticks
- Glue
- Loose parts (a variety of loose parts such as beads, felt, floral gems, pebbles, pipe cleaners, rocks, sticks, and yarn)
- Material scraps
Step 2: Introduce activity.
- Read: Everything You Need for a Treehouse.
- Ask the children to share what they know about building treehouses.
- Ask: "Why do people build treehouses?"
- Ask: "What would you include in your treehouse design?"
- Say: "Draw what your treehouse would look like."
- Ask: "Can you build a treehouse?"
Step 3: Engage children in lesson activities.
- Say: "Now it’s time to use your engineering and creative skills to design and build a model of your dream treehouse using the materials and loose parts supplied."
- When the children have finished building their treehouses, ask them to share their treehouses with the class and discuss the obstacles they encountered while building them and how they overcame these obstacles.
Step 4: Engineering vocabulary
- Create: To make something
- Design: To create a plan for something that will be built
- Discuss: To talk together to share your ideas
- Engineer: A person who solves problems
Suggested Books
- Isaac and Izzy's Treehouse by Angela Henderson
- The Fort by Laura Perdew
- The Little Red Fort by Brenda Maier
- Up in the Leaves: The True Story of the Central Park Treehouses by Shira Boss
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