To help pupils develop empathy with the housing situations of others, view the following video.
Skills: Prepares, Observes, Compares, Reflects, Inquires, Empathises
Audience: Years 1-2
Submitted by: Lindy Kurtz
Resource description:
This resource examines housing and shelter from the perspective of intercultural understanding and sustainability. After exploring types of shelter around the world, the students will be able to understand the economic, cultural and environmental circumstances which influence and constrain people's housing options.
Students will explore the idea of needs and wants and begin question their assumptions about these ideas.
Students will develop an understanding of the different ways people live both within their own communities and around the world.
Teaching and learning ideas:
- "If you could live in any sort of house, what type of house would you live in?".
Audience: Years 1-2
Submitted by: Lindy Kurtz
Resource description:
This resource examines housing and shelter from the perspective of intercultural understanding and sustainability. After exploring types of shelter around the world, the students will be able to understand the economic, cultural and environmental circumstances which influence and constrain people's housing options.
Students will explore the idea of needs and wants and begin question their assumptions about these ideas.
Students will develop an understanding of the different ways people live both within their own communities and around the world.
Teaching and learning ideas:
- Start the topic with a class discussion:
- "If you could live in any sort of house, what type of house would you live in?".
- Use question cards Observes and Compares while examining stimulus images of different houses and household items.
- Examine the need for shelter and the difference between needs and wants.
- Collect and sort pictures of common household features and items into things we need and things we want. Encourage children to think deeply about and debate how our perception of needs is dependent on cultural, social economic, climactic and environmental circumstances.
- After the discussion, make a detailed list of things you need and things you would like or want in a home.
Use a range of books, websites and videos to research the diversity of homes around the world. You may find the following sites useful:
In small groups, design a house which is very different to your own using using the question cards Observes, Compares and Inquires.
- Describe the appearance of the house.
- What do you see on, in, or around this home?
- How is this home similar to or different from your home? What do you think life in this home is like?
- Do you think this home would be important to the people who live there?
- Do people need homes? Why?
Write a sense poem about a home
Fishbowl
- "What does your home need to have in order for you to be happy?"
- "Is it important to live in a big house?"
- "Is it important to live in a big house?"
SciTech task
- "How could we improve our own house to make it more environmentally friendly?"
- "If you were designing your own house, what 3 things do you think you would need to have in it?"
- "If you were designing your own house, what 3 things do you think you would need to have in it?"