Children's books and activities
Builders and Buildings
Do you know any kids who are fascinated by architecture from other cultures, how buildings are designed and built, or what it's like to be an architect? We've gathered up a great collection of books, activities, apps, and websites for learning all about builders and buildings.
Try pairing fiction with nonfiction books and exploring different genres (like poetry and biographies) and formats (like graphic novels and audio books). You'll be creating your own "text sets" — collections of texts focused on a specific topic, such as builders and buildings. Reading widely in this way helps children build background knowledge, vocabulary, and comprehension skills.
Great Fiction & Nonfiction Books
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Print List
Alphabet Under Construction
By: Denise Fleming
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Build, Dogs, Build: A Tall Tail
By: James Horvath
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Building a House
By: Byron Barton
Age Level: 3-6 years old
A machine digs a big hole. A cement mixer pours cement. Carpenters put up walls. Bricklayers,...
Building Our House
By: Jonathan Bean
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Crescent Moons and Pointed Minarets: A Muslim Book of Shapes
By: Hena Khan
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Concept Book
Handsomely illustrated, shapes both simple (square, rectangle) and complex (cone, hexagon) are...
Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns: A Muslim Book of Colors
By: Hena Khan
Age Level: 3-6 years old
This picture book celebrates Islam's beauty and traditions. From a red prayer rug to a blue...
Home
By: Carson Ellis
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Nonfiction
Travel through time, imagination, literature, and more for a unique look at "home" in any number...
How a House Is Built
By: Gail Gibbons
Age Level: 3-6 years old
As readers quickly comprehend, building a house is a complex project requiring the cooperative...
If I Built a House
By: Chris Van Dusen
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Imaginative Jack is ready to build the house of his dreams, complete with a racetrack, flying...
Look at That Building: A First Book of Structures
By: Scot Ritchie
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Nonfiction
Introduce young readers to basic construction concepts through the eyes of five friends keen on...
Palazzo Inverso
By: D.B. Johnson
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Shapes in Buildings
By: Rebecca Rissman
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Can you spot the shape? Crisp photographs help children learn about the different shapes you can...
Young Frank, Architect
By: Frank Viva
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Young Frank is an architect. He lives with his grandfather, Old Frank, who is also an architect...
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Print List
A City Through Time
By: Philip Steele
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Follow the progress of an imaginary city through six key periods of time, each captured by a...
A House Is a House for Me
By: Mary Ann Hoberman
Age Level: 6-9 years old
A Year at a Construction Site
By: Nicholas Harris
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Send in the cranes! Bulldozers! Earthmovers! Would you like to watch how a building goes up?...
Amazing Buildings
By: Kate Hayden
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Architecture According to Pigeons
By: Speck Lee Tailfeather
Age Level: 6-9 years old
In this lively introduction to the world’s most beautiful buildings, readers take a journey...
Beavers
By: Gail Gibbons
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Beavers are fascinating animals. They build their own homes and live in family groups. They keep...
Bridges Are to Cross
By: Philomen Sturges
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
This ingeniously engineered book takes readers from the car-carrying Golden Gate Bridge in San...
Bridges: Amazing Structures to Design, Build & Test
By: Carol Johmann, Elizabeth Rieth
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Historical and technical information on the design and construction of bridges with easy hands-...
Building on Nature: The Life of Antoni Gaudí
By: Rachel Rodriguez
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Dream Builder: The Story of Architect Philip Freelon
By: Kelly Starling Lyons
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Philip Freelon’s dream became reality when his team was commissioned to design the National...
Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building
By: Christy Hale
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Recognizable constructions from childhood such as blocks and sandcastles and playful verse are...
If You Lived Here: Houses of the World
By: Giles Laroche
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Iggy Peck's Big Project Book for Amazing Architects
By: Andrea Beaty
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Iggy Peck, Architect
By: Andrea Beaty
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Let's Build a Clubhouse
By: Marilyn Singer
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Monumental Verses
By: J. Patrick Lewis
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Roberto: The Insect Architect
By: Nina Laden
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Ever since he was a wee mite (a termite, that is), Roberto has wanted to be an architect....
Skyscrapers! Super Structures to Design and Build
By: Carol A. Johmann
Age Level: 6-9 years old
The 13-Story Treehouse
By: Andy Griffiths
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Fiction
The East-West House: Noguchi's Childhood in Japan
By: Christy Hale
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
A biography of Isamu Noguchi, Japanese American artist, sculptor, and landscape architect,...
The Three Little Pigs: An Architectural Tale
By: Steven Guarnaccia
Age Level: 6-9 years old
The World Is Not a Rectangle: A Portrait of Architect Zaha Hadid
By: Jeanette Winter
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Zaha Hadid grew up in Baghdad, Iraq, and dreamed of designing her own cities. After studying...
Twenty-One Elephants and Still Standing
By: April Jones Prince
Age Level: 6-9 years old
This well-researched, handsomely illustrated picture book captures the anticipation and...
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Print List
A Green Place to Be: The Creation of Central Park
By: Ashley Benham Yazdani
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
How did Central Park become a vibrant gem in the heart of New York City? Follow the visionaries...
Amazing Buildings
By: Philip Wilkinson
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Building (Eyewitness Books)
By: Philip Wilkinson
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Building Big
By: David Macaulay
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Built to Last
By: David Macaulay
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Crossing on Time: Steam Engines, Fast Ships, and a Journey to the New World
By: David Macaulay
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
This fascinating story of the development of steam engines is told against the backdrop of David...
Curious Constructions: A Peculiar Portfolio of Fifty Fascinating Structures
By: Michael Hearst
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Some structures — like the Eiffel Tower and China’s Great Wall — are familiar. Others, however,...
From Mud Huts to Skyscrapers
By: Christine Paxmann
Age Level: 9-12 years old
A journey through the history of architecture, from the earliest mud huts to today’s soaring...
Take Shelter: At Home Around the World
By: Nikki Tate
Age Level: 9-12 years old
A roof, a door, some windows, a floor. All houses have them, but not all houses are alike. Some...
The Art of Construction: Projects and Principles for Beginning Engineers and Architects
By: Mario Salvadori
Age Level: 9-12 years old
The Future Architect's Handbook
By: Barbara Beck
Age Level: 9-12 years old
For children with a passion for drawing, or dreams of creating buildings, this book explores how...
The Story of Buildings
By: Patrick Dillon
Age Level: 9-12 years old
"Every building has a story to tell." From the pyramid erected so that an Egyptian pharaoh...
What It Feels Like to Be a Building
By: Forrest Wilson
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Have you ever felt squashed? Squeezed? Pulled? Tugged? If so, then you know what it feels like...
Who Built That? Modern Houses
By: Didier Cornille
Age Level: 9-12 years old
A tour through ten of the most important houses by the greatest architects of the 20th and 21st...
Hands-on Activities
Build on what you're learning together through books with these family-friendly activities, experiments, and crafts.
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30 Ways to Use a Cardboard Box
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4 Easy Pop Ups
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5 DIY Bird Houses
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ABCs of Architecture: Building Parts
AIA New York Center for Architecture -
Acting Out Architecture
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Architecture Bingo
Architectural Heritage Center -
Architecture Shape Collage
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Architecture Shapes
Frank Lloyd Wright Martin House -
Bird's Nest from Twigs
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Box City Curriculum $
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Bridge Builders
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Build a 3D Scale Model
AIA New York Center for Architecture -
Build a Dam and Explore Water Flow
PBS KIDS -
Build a Green Roof
American Society of Landscape Architects -
Build an Aqueduct
PBS KIDS -
Building Materials Scavenger Hunt
Washington Architectural Foundation -
Building Stories: Design a House
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Building Tension
Foster + Partners -
Building Texture Rubbings
AIA New York Center for Architecture -
Canine House of Cards
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Cardboard Box City
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Cardboard Box Forts
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Cardboard Castle
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City Pop Up Card
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Drawing Symmetry
AIA New York Center for Architecture -
Engineer a Bird's Nest
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Fairy Garden II
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Four Orders of Architecture
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Geodesic Gumdrops
Exploratorium -
Geometric Shapes in Architecture
Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation -
How to Draw Blueprints
AIA New York Center for Architecture -
Islamic ornament in architecture
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Landscape Architecture Activities
American Society of Landscape Architects -
Make Your Own Building Ornaments
AIA New York Center for Architecture -
Marble Run (Complex)
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Marble Run (Simple)
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Mini Art Gallery
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Neighborhood Memory Map
AIA New York Center for Architecture -
Newspaper Forts
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Paper Skyscraper
Foster + Partners -
Roman Aqueduct
Bright Hub Education -
Roman Villa
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Scandinavian House
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Shapes and Patterns in Nature
Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation -
Suspension Bridge I
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Suspension Bridge II
Summer Writing
Give kids a chance to flex their writing muscles all summer long. Try one of these prompts, selected from our writing contest archives and other literacy organizations.
Great Websites for Kids
Dive deeper into topics of interest with these media-rich and interactive sites.
Great Podcasts for Kids
Listen and learn with these podcasts especially for kids. These podcasts are free and easy to listen to from any device via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Stitcher — or from Listen Notes, a podcast search engine.
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Bridges vs Tunnels
Brains On! -
How do elevators work?
Brains On!
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World’s Fair Structures: Our Top Five
The Past and the Curious
Educational Apps
Educational apps recommended by Common Sense Media and other trusted reviewers.
More Themed Resources
Growing Readers Tip Sheets
Simple activities for parents and kids to do together to build reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. Read online or print the PDF.
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Teaching Sequence
Download PDF: English | Spanish -
Think Like an Inventor!
Download PDF: English | Spanish
Our Summer Blog
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