How come a bench is able to support your weight and resist the gravity pulling it towards the earth? How do buildings manage to stay upright? And how do all of those shapes stick together? When you can find the smaller structures hidden inside a building’s design, you can also see how the architect used them in the best way possible to make that building strong.

Related Lessons

  • In this step-by-step activity video, which requires little other than some newspaper and tape, we learn about the vocabulary of location and position (over, under, in front of and behind). Practicing these skills helps your children develop a spatial sense of objects in relation to other objects in a 3D space.

  • In this step-by-step activity video, we create a fun Bingo-style board game while helping your child develop number and counting skills. This video is included as part of PBS SoCal’s Family Math initiative, which provides math tools and support for families of young learners.

  • In this step-by-step activity video, we hunt through magazines and newspapers for shapes while talking to our children about shape names and attributes. We then create colorful collages to share with the family. This video is included as part of PBS SoCal’s Family Math initiative, which provides math tools and support for families of young learners.