Pistes d'exploration

Research the tallest building in your community and compare it to the tallest building in Québec and Canada. What is the tallest structure you have been in? 

Which of the buildings in the book would you most like to visit or live in? Create a travel brochure highlighting the reasons why people should visit this structure.

Think like an architect! In small groups, discuss how you would redesign your school. What materials would you use? What would you change? Refer to the book for ideas. Create a blueprint and present it to the rest of the class.

Talk about the book. Find the countries where these homes are located on a map of the world. Which home would you like to live in? Why? 

Make a graphic organizer to compare the homes in the book (e.g. country, location, building materials).

Imagine one of the homes in the book is for sale. Write a newspaper ad that describes its key features. Make it sound appealing.

Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building, Storybook Homes, Adventure Homes, Home

Mots-clés

Non-fiction , architecture , around the world , buildings , city and country life , construction , homes

Commentaire descriptif

Starting with the contemporary apartment building, this book travels around the world and back in time to discuss the many fascinating tall structures that have served to house and protect people. The language emphasizes architectural elements, building materials and engineering terms, for young readers of a practical nature: “Concrete is poured around steel rods called rebars.” Those with a more poetic bent will be drawn to the discussion of cave homes, pueblos, pagodas, castles and temples: “pagodas are built with an odd number of levels for good luck.” And everyone will be interested to learn how the Leaning Tower of Pisa was encouraged to lean less. Photographs bring a great variety of dwellings and lifestyles to young readers. Cartoon-like illustrations show informative cutaways and serve to clarify the building processes. Sharp eyes may also notice a few comical details (e.g. Superman rescuing a fallen window-washer; a cat chasing a mouse through the building site). Back material includes an index, a glossary made up of words from the text in boldface type and resources for further investigation. One of a series of four about homes of all kinds, this is a great book for the curious, and for budding architects and engineers alike.