Core Skills Analysis
Science
- Explored how a shelter can provide protection from weather and the surrounding environment.
- Considered how materials and structure affect a shelter’s usefulness.
- Practiced observing a real-world problem and developing a practical solution.
Engineering and Design
- Used an engineering design process by creating an emergency shelter for a specific purpose.
- Made decisions about construction, stability, and available materials.
- Built understanding through hands-on planning, making, and evaluating.
Life Skills
- Developed preparedness by learning one way people can respond during an emergency.
- Practiced resourcefulness and problem-solving in a practical situation.
- Built confidence through learning a useful safety-related skill.
Tips
Tips: Turn this into a mini design challenge by discussing what an emergency shelter should protect against, then having the child sketch a plan before building. Invite them to compare two safe shelter designs and explain which is stronger, more comfortable, or easier to assemble. Afterward, encourage a simple reflection drawing or dictated sentence about what worked and what could change. Reinforce that real emergencies require adult guidance and appropriate safety procedures.
Book Recommendations
- A Shelter in Our Car by Janet M. Craig: A picture book that introduces the idea of shelter and safety through a family’s experience.
- The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires: A story about designing, building, revising, and persisting when a project does not work immediately.
- Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty: An encouraging introduction to engineering, invention, creative problem-solving, and learning from mistakes.
Learning Standards
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.K.2: Supports informative drawing, labeling, or writing about how the shelter works.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.1: Encourages collaborative discussion about planning, building, and improving the shelter.
- CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP4: Applies mathematics by modeling a real-world shelter problem.
- CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP5: Uses tools and materials strategically during construction.
- NGSS K-2-ETS1-1: Identifies a simple problem involving the need for shelter and discusses possible solutions.
- NGSS K-2-ETS1-2: Develops a simple sketch, model, or physical solution for the shelter challenge.
Try This Next
- Shelter-design worksheet: draw the shelter, label its materials, and identify what it protects against.
- Design quiz: “What makes a shelter stable, useful, and protective?”
- Materials test: compare which safe household materials bend, stand, cover, or support best.
- Writing prompt: “If I had to improve my shelter, I would change ___ because ___.”