Chicago's amazing architecture is the vehicle for the Chicago Architecture Foundation's curriculum, Schoolyards to Skylines. Filled with rich, hands-on activities, this teaching resource uses the phenomenal Chicago built environment as a tool for teaching K-8 grade mathematics, language and fine arts, science and social sciences. The lessons also align with the Illinois State goals and Chicago Academic standards.

Students are challenged to use their critical thinking skills and their creativity to think about their own communities. They are asked to understand buildings where they live, play, learn, and shop as not only places to provide shelter, but also to provide a multiplicity of purposes which profoundly affect their lives. The goal is to have students take responsibility for their surroundings and to use their knowledge to inform their decisions about the future of their communities having a respect for the past.

Forty-seven lessons organized around five core subject areas provide themes that can be integrated in existing curriculum. Designed for a range of learning styles, the lessons are experiential and interactive. They use the local community as a starting point.

Although constructed to address the Reading Initiative of the Chicago Public Schools, the easy-to-use, wide variety of activities help all teachers in other cities across the nation to build word knowledge, comprehension, and writing skills of their students. Many of the academic standards may resonate in other educational communities.

You don't have to be in Chicago to appreciate this excellent, well-designed teaching tool which sensitizes students to the world around them and the relevancy of the built environment to their lives. This curriculum has a comprehensive resource list and wide application which will inspire all teachers to use their local communities in new, creative ways to empower their students.

To purchase a copy, contact the Chicago Architecture Foundation.