Welcome back to Summer Wonder at Home Creativity Challenges! Every Monday until August 31, there will be a new challenge for you to build, create, design or discover with your family using materials you have at home. This week's challenge is building a monument. A monument is a statue, building or structure that honours an important person or event.
Create your own monument to celebrate you! Or, build your own version of a famous monument from around the world. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out these pictures of monuments from around the world:
China: The Great Wall of China
Egypt: The Great Pyramids at Giza
Think about your monument and sketch out your plan. Will your monument be long like the Great Wall of China, or tall like the CN Tower? Our Toronto landmark is 1,815 feet tall! Or maybe your monument will have beautiful pools of water like the Taj Mahal, or arches like the Colosseum.
You can build your monument out of any available materials you have at home. Use craft supplies, books, pillows, cardboard, recyclables, toys and more! Remember, your structure does not have to stand up on its own. You can also draw or paint your monument on paper or use scrap paper to make a collage. Be creative and try making different monuments using a variety of materials.
As you create your monument think about these questions:
- What type of structure was the hardest to build? Which was the easiest?
- What shapes do you see in each monument? What shapes help make it stronger? Are there any shapes that make a building weaker?
- Imagine the inside of your structure. Describe what you see and draw a picture.
Like building structures? Explore different monuments and structures through books:
Built to Last by David Macaulay
Epic! Statues and Monuments by Teresa Domnauer
Incredible Cross-Sections by Stephen Biesty
The Science of Buildings: The Sky-scraping Story of Structures by Alex Woolf
Where is the Taj Mahal? by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler
More books in the "Where Is" series
We'd love to see what you create! Ask a grown-up to take a picture of your monument and share it with the Toronto Public Library on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter using the hashtag #TPLSummerWonder.
Try all the other Creativity Challenges:
Design a Dinosaur
Every Bird Needs a Nest
Create a Time Machine
Dream Library
Graffiti Prints
Animal Sun Print
I Remember!
Build a Fort