Education
Young FRIENDS
SINCE 1995, Young FRIENDS programs have used architecture to help us explore the city and teach children to see their world in a new way. Buildings have stories to tell!
Students on the Upper East Side, East Harlem, and other neighborhoods join us in learning about architecture in New York City and beyond! Together, we learn about gargoyles, cornices, shapes and colors, historic districts, and traces of immigrant Yorkville through engaging, interactive lessons.
Our age-specific courses introduce Pre-K children to the buildings in their communities, as well as teach older students to analyze architectural elements in more depth. For our Young FRIENDS, the city is our classroom!
We offer our programs to schools located in Midtown East, the Upper East Side, East Harlem, and in other neighborhoods upon request. We reach over 2,000 students annually and are proud that our programs continue to grow and thrive. We teach at many public schools, including Hunter College Elementary School, P.S. 83, 87, 102, 125, 158, 267, 290, and at private schools such as Allen-Stevenson, Brearley, Chapin, Convent of the Sacred Heart, Dalton, East Harlem School at Exodus House, Hewitt, Nightingale-Bamford, and Our Lady Queen of Angels.
Please contact our Director of Education, Heidi Carey: hcarey@friends-ues.org to learn more about our educational offerings or to schedule a program soon.
Family Walking Tour:
Historic Yorkville
Program 1
Building Fun Basics
One-hour or two-hour long sessions recommended for Pre-K and Kindergarten
Building Fun Basics introduces young children to the art of looking and understanding the built environment. In the classroom, we lead hands-on activities to teach students about the buildings in their community. We then offer the option of a neighborhood architecture walk geared for our youngest learners.Buildings are Fun!
On our first visit, in the classroom, students learn what architecture is through engaging images. We then use architecture to reinforce concepts of color, number, shape, size, texture, and pattern using colored paper, blocks, and actual building material samples. Students complete a two-dimensional shape building and/or a simple cardboard box building model.Neighborhood Walk (optional)
Next, we venture outside for a walk as architecture detectives. We use a color-coded guide to help us find shapes, colors, materials and patterns in the neighborhood buildings.
Program 2
Building Fun
Three hour-long sessions recommended for 1st-4th grades
Can a building talk? This program awakens children’s interest in architecture and New York City history. We introduce students to the idea that buildings do talk, telling us their use, material, age, and purpose. Students study historic neighborhood photographs & maps, learn architectural vocabulary words, perform a block survey and play detective during a walking tour tailored to their school’s neighborhood, and act as architects as they design their own buildings, making creative decisions about the building’s use, material and architectural elements. The program is a great addition to the study of New York City and the neighborhood/community.The Language of Buildings (classroom session)
In Lesson 1, we meet in the classroom and learn that architecture has a story to tell. It talks to us and gives us clues to its job (use), what it is made of, how old it could be, and what it tells us about our neighborhood and our city and world. Through an interactive presentation, children consider buildings in unique, novel ways. We learn 13 architectural elements that give us a more in-depth perspective of the structures in our lives.Walking Tour (in your school neighborhood)
During our second meeting, we embark on a customized school neighborhood walk and become architecture detectives. Using a checklist of architectural elements learned in our first lesson, students work alone or in pairs to hunt for arches, cornices, gargoyles, etc. in the real world! As we head back to school, we review what we have found and discuss what how buildings are an important part of our communities.Art Activity (classroom session)
Now that students are experts on architecture and have observed it in the field, they are ready to become “architects!” Students design their own New York City building by using drawings of architectural elements to compose a collage. From apartment buildings, museums and schools to places of worship and storefronts, the possibilities for creative designs are endless! To further reinforce the program’s concepts, each student is given a copy of our original activity booklet entitled Building Fun: Exploring Architecture with Friends of the Upper East Side. Upon request, a 4th model building lesson can be added.
Program 3
Yorkville Immigration
Three hour-long sessions recommended for 3rd-5th grades, or any class studying immigration
This program explores the rich history of immigration on the Upper East Side by focusing on the German, Hungarian, and Czech areas in historic Yorkville and how the built environment can provide clues to this rich heritage. Students study historic photographs, maps, learn new architectural vocabulary words, act as detectives during a walking tour, and role play as new immigrants during an art and writing activity.Introduction to Immigration (classroom session)
This image filled session begins with a brief history of immigration in New York City (with a focus on the Upper East Side) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, from the journey by ship to New York City, to the inspection stations at Ellis Island, and the choice of which neighborhood to live in. We focus on the idea of immigrant communities, including how food, music, language, and religion often made immigrants feel at home in Yorkville. Students study tenement floor plans and imagine what life was like in a tenement building. Through the study of photographs, maps and a vocabulary sheet with architectural terms, students learn how immigration affected the character of a neighborhood and its built environment.Yorkville Walking Tour (field trip)
We meet in historic Yorkville and embark on a walking tour of significant homes, tenement buildings, churches, and stores that reflect the historic presence of immigrants. From an 1830 farmhouse to the old site of Jacob Ruppert’s brewery, students will act as detectives to discover evidence of the immigrant community and consider how food, music, language, and religion brought them together. The walk show students how immigrant history can be found in their immediate built environment. *Please note that this walking tour takes place in Yorkville and your educator will meet you at an agreed upon location. Please factor in travel time from your school.Art Activity (classroom session)
The culminating lesson is an art and writing project that allows students to travel back in time and place themselves in the shoes of a new immigrant arriving at Ellis Island and settling into the neighborhood of Yorkville. On this journey, activities include creating their own passport, passing “inspection” at Ellis Island, designing a postcard with an image of their new neighborhood and writing a letter to a friend or family member in their homeland. At the end of this session, each student is given a copy of our Yorkville Immigration activity booklet.
