If the Year 2 Boys are to be believed, they are New Zealand’s most amazing architects – as well as having the ability to make a superb real estate sales pitch! With the male purchaser in mind, their creations included plenty of wide screen televisions, rock lava spas, sharks in the swimming pool and a host of James Bond-like, eye-popping secret features for easy access and cosy living, boy-style!

As part of their inquiry into ‘what we live in is influenced by where we live,’ the boys  designed, planned, and constructed their own dream homes, having learnt  different ways to first research  various living styles from around the world and to look at housing from the past. They began the unit by taking a walk around the Remuera area to look at different styles of architecture.

The boys were encouraged to think about creative ways to design and construct their own unique creation with special features, using readily available recyclable materials from home. Clearly there is plenty of Weetbix consumed by Year 2 boys! Parents were invited to school to assist their master builder sons with the tricky bits of the building process, such as the use of glue guns and craft knives. The resulting details were amazing and each interpretation was quite unique – as was the ‘sales pitch’ to market and sell the houses to their parents at a special presentation!

This was a good example of inquiry learning for our Year 2 boys. They were motivated to learn within a real and authentic context and they accessed all curriculum areas to do so.

And they learned that you can never use too many superlatives when trying to sell your house!

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