Looking for fun, educational activities for kids over the holiday break? How about ones that will engage their minds and/or bodies, stimulate their imaginations, encourage their creativity, and teach them about architecture and the world around them? What if you have a selection of activities that can be done solo, or with siblings or parents? MAF has that! Check out the following FREE architecture related activities for kids, courtesy of MAF:
∙ Let’s Use Our Imaginations! MAF’s Architecture: it’s Elementary! is a multi-disciplinary educational curriculum designed to introduce students from kindergarten through grade five to architecture and the built environment. The curriculum provides kids with critical STEAM-related learning opportunities, through lessons and activities that engage their minds, bodies, and imaginations.
Originally developed for the classroom, each activity can easily be done at home with siblings and parents (or in the future, as part of a post-pandemic group activity). Activities include acting out structures, measuring, learning about animal habitats, drawing from memory, and putting on a play that imagines how cities began. You can download the lessons and activities here, and view the program in action on MAF’s educational YouTube channel, Architecture for Youth)
∙ Let’s Go on an Adventure! MAF’s ArchiTreks is a video program aimed at getting kids excited about architecture, science, and engineering through segments that take kids on neighborhood adventures to explore shapes, structures, landmarks, and preservation, and pique curiosity about their surroundings.
Created by MAF in partnership with Detroit Public Television (DPTV), each of the ArchiTreks video segments on MAF’s Architecture for Youth YouTube Channel feature fun activities that can be done at home or on a neighborhood walk with parents, siblings, or (in the future) with friends. Along the way, kids can discover architectural treasures, and learn more about gravity’s role in architecture, architecture’s role in their neighborhoods, and more.
∙ Let’s Be Creative! Do your kids love to color? Want them to learn to recognize architecture in their daily lives at the same time? Download these free architecture coloring pages, for young children and for coloring fans of all ages.
∙ Let’s Read! Reading architecture books is a great way to learn about the built environment and explore the world from the comfort and safety of home. Through MAF’s Dumke Fund, MAF supports two architectural book collections: The Build Imagination Collection for young children, and the 100 Essential Architecture Books for architecture fans of all ages. Both collections are housed at Birmingham’s Baldwin Library, and available to borrow through MeLCat, Michigan’s free interlibrary loan system. (most Michigan libraries are currently open for safe curbside pickup only; contact your local library for more information).
Want to start your own architecture book collection, for kids or adults? Amazon.com carries several titles for every architecture fan. Want to help support MAF with your purchase? Shop using Amazon Smile. Visit smile.amazon.com, follow the instructions to get started and select Michigan Architectural Foundation as your charity of choice. The AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases to MAF. (You also can purchase some titles through the MAF website).