Messages of the Built Environment (Messages) is a family math and language development program that uses the objects and surroundings of a child’s world: the inside and outside of buildings large and small, parks and playgrounds and everyday objects as giant free props to engage adults and children in applying math to the world around them.
Find them, Count them, Sort them, Name them, Draw them connects school-based, home-based, and community learning.
Messages of the Built Environment teaches parents and teachers how to analyze everyday objects and environments using observation tools: line, shape, color and pattern, to enliven family and/or classroom math activities and support the understanding of quantitative and spatial language. The early work focused on classroom activities. Later iterations increasingly focused on parents and building confidence in their ability to support informal learning.
Designed in partnership with the American Architectural Foundation, Messages uses LearnLead’s explore - discover - discuss learning model to establish a structure for gathering information, comparing what you see with what you already know, and developing opinions and sharing ideas based on data collected from observation and integrated with the benefit of past knowledge and experiences.
Workshops help parents and teachers sharpen their own observation skills and practice how to combine what they already know about lines, shapes, colors and patterns with inquiry: using closed and open-ended questions and, most significantly, wait time to encourage conversation. Peers practice the model and play “what if’s” with each other to gain confidence in using the process.
Pocket guides are brief suggestions of home or community discovery opportunities (comparing and contrasting different windows, roofs, doors, tiles, knobs, etc). Family scrapbooks encourage children to interpret what they have experienced through drawings, cut-outs from papers or magazines, or photos and allow families to reflect on and enjoy their progress over time.
Large group family events at school or a community organization during evenings or weekends reinforce what parents learned in the workshops and engage parents who may not have time for workshops.
Try it!
What do you see?
Find, name, count, sort , draw – lines, shapes, patterns and/or colors, to explore the math in objects and everyday surroundings.
Explore one idea at a time. Try it outside or inside – where you walk, where you live or when you read a picture book.
Windows, doors, steps, roofs, streets and signs - chairs, tables, corners, cabinets, hallways, knobs, tiles - all tell stories by their color, size, shape, texture and decoration - and offer opportunities to explore math through counting, sorting, estimating, measuring and recognizingå basic math and geometry in the everyday.
Imagine if the straight lines were curvy . . . or the color were different . . . or something were much larger or smaller . . . What might happen? How would it feel?
Easy-to-use materials link
home, school and community learning
Home-Based Guides use household and neighborhood surroundings as props for experiential learning activities for families.
Classroom Guides use the school building and surroundings to enliven curricula.
Adult workshops facilitate experiences with peers on how to combine observation tools and teaching props in their surroundings with their own creativity to engage young children in discovery-based learning. Parents learn to respect their knowledge and skills and apply them to informal learning. Teachers learn to enhance and enliven curricula with experiential, formal learning. Each learns to tickle their own and their child’s imagination to inspire learning, laughter and accomplishment.
Family Events and Family Field Trips help families explore ideas, express their ideas though hands-on creations, and reflect on ideas whether or not they have attended workshops.
Pocket Guides are tip sheets to support informal, discovery-based learning anywhere you are.
Family Portfolios are scrapbooks of parent-child adventures at home and in the neighborhood.
Contact us to learn more and for the materials you want to test!
Lessons Learned
The process proved engaging and effective with both parents and teachers.
Teachers reported the training and activities supported and enlivened their current curricula.
Parents, including speakers of other languages, liked using Messages pocket guides and reported using them once a week or more.
Anecdotes suggest parents found the model created comfortable opportunities to use physical settings to introduce their own memories of place to their children, a wonderful way to stimulate engaging conversation and playful learning between parent and child.
Inviting parents to take photographs of “teaching tools” in the neighborhood for use in their child’s classroom and/or the workshops validated family ownership.
The CDM Group implemented a Formative Evaluation Study in 2005 to assess Messages.
From that study we learned:
“Collectively, the teachers found the Messages curriculum to be useful and applicable to their existing objectives and curricula; ninety-six percent agreed that the objectives of the Messages program aligned well with their individual classroom goals. For example, one teacher stated:
“The materials were the most effective or useful. The books and the instructions, some of the activities helped the children to focus and decrease behaviors so they can learn, especially, for ADHD children. They could stop, look and listen – children were very interested. [The] Children were very interested in shapes. The parent feedback is very good.”
“Moreover, 100% of the respondents used the Messages strategies or principles. The most popular Messages tools reported by teachers (Table 2) included: using inquiry skills when talking with the children (100%), visual vocabulary with children (96.1%), the Messages pocket guides (84.6%), the Messages lesson plans, and the Messages family portfolios/journals (76.9%).”
80% of participating parents reported using Messages materials at least once a week, and sought teachers advice in finding lines and shapes at home and in the community, 90% those interviewed who were aware of Messages ( 89%), indicated they saw progress in their children’s recognition of letters and numbers, be more observant, to count, and to name colors.”