When lesson and project planning, one goal is try and make as many connections I can with the curriculum and topics that are happening in the classroom. The focus of the third grade curriculum at my school is the city of Chicago. Students spend much of the year looking at the history of the city and making connections with what they see and know about the current systems of Chicago.
In my curriculum, I take the angle of innovation and Chicago. So many innovations, technologies and industries have their roots and foundations in the city. For the first big project of the year in the library and makerspace, the topic is architecture. Chicago has such a rich and exciting architectural history. Chicago was home to the first skyscraper in the world and continues to build amazing buildings and spaces. Chicago was also home to Frank Lloyd Wright. This project started with an exploration of Frank Lloyd Wright and then some laser cutting!
The project started with reading and learning more about Frank Lloyd Wright and his uniquely American style of architecture. Each class read the book Prairie Boy: Frank Lloyd Wright Turns the Prairie Into a Home by Barb Rosenstock. This picture book biography shares the story of Wright’s life as well as how he was inspired by the prairie to design and create prairie style architecture. As a class, we talked about what they noticed in the book. Some of the observations included the use of shapes, the connections with Wright’s childhood and his architecture and how changes in the world inspired him to design for a new world.
Next, students took time to look at images of three of Wright’s most famous buildings in the Chicago area. Third graders watched tours of the Frank Lloyd Wright home and studio, the Unity Temple and the Robie House. As students looked at pictures and watched short video tours they documented connections they made with what they learned in the book and what they saw in the buildings. Students then learned about the Coonley Playhouse windows. Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Coonley School in Riverside, IL. In addition to designing the school, Wright designed a series of colorful stained glass windows for the kindergarten playroom in the school.
Students looked at images of the windows and made connections with what they learned about Wright’s style. I also talked about how Wright wanted to create a space that was for young learners. As a class they made connections and collected ideas about why they thought the windows were designed for young learners. They talked about the colors and shapes Wright used and how they looked playful and would spark imagination. Then I asked third graders to think about the young learners at our school, the junior and senior kindergarteners. For the final step in this project, third graders were asked to be designers for our youngest learners.
Thinking about what they learned about Frank Lloyd Wright, his designs and especially the Coonley Playhouse stained glass windows, students were asked to design stained glass windows for our youngest students. Using Google Draw, third graders use different shapes and arrange them into different designs. Third graders spent time arranging and rearranging shapes to make imaginative windows. Then, I used the library’s Glowforge laser cutter to cut out the shapes from black chipboard to make sturdy windows. The final step was for students to add different color tissue paper to finish their windows. The windows were put on display in the library hallway and shared with junior and senior kindergarten students.
This was a great combination of research projects and hands-on experience for third graders. They were able to take information they learned from multiple resources: books, photographs and videos, to make connections with Frank Lloyd Wright’s prairie style design. Then, they took on the role of a designer and thought about how they would design imaginative windows for younger students at the school. This was a great project and a wonderful way to start the year long student of Chicago through the lens of innovation.
