Parthenon out of Unit Blocks

Open house for our local homeschool coop is Thursday.  I signed up to teach two courses, one of which is Appreciation of Architecture for 8-11 year olds.  I like to have an activity out at open house that supports the class.  Thursday it will be build the Parthenon out of unit blocks from only a photograph.

For this building you'll need the following unit blocks:
(8) Quad unit rectangles
(1) Long wide road plank
(20) Medium round columns
(8) Double unit rectangles
(8) Roof joists

You can of course design the building with a different blocks.  This pattern uses approximately half the number of columns of the real building.  It seemed like an easy way to think about the scale.

I've attached the cheat sheet.  At open house all the blocks will be laid out randomly and they get a large picture of the Parthenon.  They have to put the building together just by the photograph.  

The book below, Block Building for Children, is a great book for exploring architecture with blocks for kids.  It does not have patterns for specific buildings but rather, building types.  It has a Gothic cathedral, not Chartres specifically, for example.


If you're considering buying blocks, they're expensive but a great resource.  They are used virtually every day at our house.  I bought some of ours from Barclay Blocks.  The quality was very good.  On their website here, they have photos of projects and here, they have drawings of famous buildings to inspire you.   Happy building!
Parthenon Directions Blog

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