Kindergarten
Continuing its legacy of providing early childhood design education, the BSA Foundation aims to share architecture in age-appropriate ways and build greater awareness of architecture with students as early as kindergarten. To bring ideas about architecture and city-making into local classrooms, BSA partners with Boston Public Schools (BPS) and Cambridge Public Schools (CPS) to share curriculum and with its network of architects to bring the lessons to life.
Piloted during the 2017-2018 school year, the BSA's Kindergarten curriculum provides a two-part interactive lesson to participating classrooms, introducing students to architecture and planning through simple shapes and building types. The curriculum fits within a 10-week unit on construction and the larger year-long Focus on K-2 curriculum developed by BPS and utilized by CPS. Through a guided presentation and hands-on activity, students learn about the various places that make up their city before a hands-on design activity bridging individual student designs with a discussion on neighborhood planning.
BSA's Kindergarten program began with 15 classrooms (2018) and now reaches upwards of 250 classrooms through various means. Through virtual and hybrid visits (2020-2022), the architect-guided curriculum and volunteer architect visits grew to serve 120+ classrooms across the region. As in-person learning resumed, the BSA scaled the program through the launch of a teacher-guided curriculum (2023) and materials provided to all district classrooms to supplement the volunteer pairing program.
In 2025, all participating Boston and Cambridge Public School classrooms are engaging in the full program during the Construction Unit. Classrooms will host their paired volunteer architect for the Kindergarten lesson on architecture as well as for a visit to assist directly in the Our Boston/Our Cambridge project. Volunteers will engage with their paired classroom through the two main visits and are welcome to see completed projects during the exhibition.
By providing additional learning opportunities and connections with local architects, the BSA aims to provide a consistent throughline of architecture for students and develop early awareness of the built environment to some of Boston's youngest residents.
2025
Dates
February-May 2025
Location
Visits: Boston and Cambridge classrooms
Program
Type
Custom curriculum
Classroom workshops
Grade Level
Kindergarten
Timeframe
2017-present
Timeline
November: Classroom application
December: Volunteer application
January: Volunteer application continues and classroom pairing begins
February: Volunteer preparation and classroom visit #1 for Lesson on Architecture
March-April: Classroom visit #2 for Our Boston/Our Cambridge project
May: Our Boston/Our Cambridge Celebration(s) and Exhibition(s)
Collaborators
Partners
Boston Public Schools Early Childhood Department
Cambridge Public Schools Kindergarten Department
Volunteers
Local architects and designers
Volunteers
Sharing your knowledge and interest in architecture/design with local students is essential to building early awareness of built environment. Thank you to our volunteers, both past and present, for your time and energy dedicated to this program.
Applications are open for 2025 volunteers. Sign up today.
Support
Thank you to those who have generously supported the development of this program. The program's growth and development were supported by the Cummings Foundation (2020-2022), while the launch of the teacher-guided curriculum and materials to all Boston Public School classrooms was supported by HAUS (2023).
To support this and other K-12 programs, consider donating to the BSA Foundation.
