Sample Lesson Plans: Historic Preservation
Planning For Preservation - Activity #1-Interest Center / Field Trip

Materials:
-Style identification worksheets
-Photographs of (local) buildings (your own or those provided)
-Section of Styles from this book
-Pencils
-Checklist of student names

 

To the Student:
You will now have the chance to practice identifying the styles of buildings. You will need to examine each building very carefully to make a correct identification. Pay close attention to windows and other details present on the building, and remember to study the roof for clues.

Follow these steps:
1. Stop to look at the shape and overall appearance of the whoIe building.
2. Look at the roof.
3. Look at windows and doors.
4. Look for special ornamental details.
5. Draw a detail.
6. Decide the building's style.


To the Teacher:
The intent of this activity is to provide your students with the opportunity to practice identifying the building styles they have learned. We have included a set of photographs illustrating each style for your use in the classroom. However, if you can also find examples of such buildings in your community, we encourage you to use local examples.

This may be your chance to realize your great talent as a photographer, using a Polaroid camera or even an instamatic. You may wish to allow students to choose and photograph buildings they discover as a special project.

We encourage you to plan several field trips to real buildings in your community recognizing that a first-hand experience with a building is more valuable than a book of photographs.


Structuring the Interest Center:
Set up a table or several desks in a corner near a bulletin board. Display the photos of each building, to be studied along with a copy of the Styles Chapter from this book and identification worksheets which follow. Encourage the students to visit the center alone or in pairs to study the photos and fill out one worksheet for each building pictured. According to your students' abilities, you can display several styles of buildings to be identified simultaneously, or you may wish to show just one
one style at a time, changing the photo after all students have visited the center. It is helpful to include a list of the children's names in the interest center so that each student can check off his/her name after completing-the task. This will give you an easy method of discovering when the center needs to be changed.

An interesting variation to displaying whole buildings might be to show only a photo of a building detail (such as a bracket). Ask the students to name the "Detail of the Day" and tell which style it exemplifies.