Messages of the Built Environment is the wellspring for several LLF community- based programs using the neighborhood and everyday objects as teaching tools. The holistic program includes classroom activities, large group family activities, take-home materials for families, and professional development for teachers. Messages was developed in partnership with the American Architectural Foundation with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to support center-based preschool programs.
Messages teaches adults to recognize and use teaching opportunities in the art architecture and design of their immediate surroundings.
Looking for lines, shapes and patterns in the neighborhood and within everyday objects makes abstract classroom ideas real and relevant.
The process strengthens children’s ability to recognize and write letters and to make meaning from the world around them. Counting, sorting, naming, drawing and interpreting lines, shapes of everyday objects and environments develops vocabulary and math skills and supports effective story-telling.
- Large group and individual family activities based on Messages support community programming for families.
LLF programs based Messages include Parenting for Literacy, a parent-child together program, and TAP: Teaching Advantage for Parents, an adaptation for Adult Basic Education programs.