We live in all sorts of dif­fer­ent build­ings.  Some of us live in hous­es, oth­ers live in an apart­ment and some kids even live on wheels!  Today, let’s pre­tend we’re archi­tects and draw our own hous­es with ele­va­tions and floor plans.

An ele­va­tion is a draw­ing of one side of your house, like this:

Front, rear and cut­away ele­va­tions of Camp­bell House.

Floor plans are a map of the rooms of your house, like this:

Floor plans of the first (top) and sec­ond (bot­tom) floors of Camp­bell House.

To get you start­ed, click here to down­load and print a blank floor plan, then click here to down­load and print a blank ele­va­tion plan.

First, draw the floor plan of your house, using the blank plans you just print­ed and col­ored pen­cils, mark­ers or crayons. Be sure to label each room: kitchen, liv­ing room, bath­room, your bed­room, and any oth­er rooms you have. If you have a sec­ond (or third!) floor in your house, draw a sep­a­rate floor plan for each floor. Not all rooms are per­fect­ly square or rec­tan­gu­lar, so draw the rooms true to their shape. It may help if you sit in the mid­dle of each room and can see how all the walls come togeth­er. Make sure you include door­ways and windows!

When you fin­ish your floor plan, use the print­out of the ele­va­tion plan to draw an ele­va­tion of the front of your house, com­plete with doors, win­dows, steps and any dec­o­ra­tions that may be on the front of it. Is there a garage attached to your house? Is your house made of brick or wood or stuc­co? Include as many details as you can that make your house special.

After you’re done with your ele­va­tion and floor plans, have show and tell with your friends to explain the rooms of your house and what you like best about each one. When talk­ing about the ele­va­tion, be sure to tell your class­mates what makes your house unique and dif­fer­ent from all the oth­er hous­es or build­ings on your street.

This program has been created with a grant from the Whitaker Foundation.

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