New School Montessori students in 1st-3rd grade have channeled their study of arrays, perimeter and area into a fun project where their goal was to create their own plans for a dream home. Before beginning, the class discussed situations in the real world where they might need to purchase carpet or linoleum to exactly cover the square footage of the floor of a bedroom or kitchen. Students chose to work in groups or individually on this project.
Each floor plan was required to include bedrooms for family members, kitchen, family room and at least one bathroom in their 1,400 square foot home design. There were a number of additional fun rooms that appeared for arcade games, libraries, indoor swimming pools, nurseries and more. Hallways, doorways and extra small rooms were sometimes a challenge, but then who hasn’t lived in a first apartment where your room was the size of a closet and you had to go through other rooms to get to common areas?
All in all, this was a super fun use of math skills, teamwork and dreaming!
