Build Guides, Lesson Plans and Internship Resources
General Activities and Team Building Guides
These activities for all ages and team building exercises are a great way to help students develop problem-solving and collaboration skills.
- Frame Your Way To The Top (all ages)
- Design Your Dream (all ages)
- Becoming a Tiler: Piece by Piece (all ages)
- Think Like an Engineer (all ages)
- Construction Snack-tivity (ages 6-12)
- Building Me (ages 13+)
Lesson Plans and Build Guides for Kindergarten – 4th Graders
NAHB Build Guides
Each build guide includes a material list, estimated time to complete the activity and detailed step-by-step instructions with photos. The guides are designed for students in Kindergarten through 3rd grade.
- Birdhouse
- Electrical Wall
- Plumbing Wall
- Cardboard Bridge
- Tile Coaster Activity
- Home Building Crafts Activity
- Craft Stick House Activity
- Flour Concrete Activity
House That She Built Lesson Plans
The House That She Built is a children’s book featuring women with careers in the building industry based on a real home built in Utah by an all-female team. The lesson plans include all the information you’ll need to incorporate The House That She Built into a hands-on classroom activity.
- Boys and Girls Club Building Certificate Program
- Boys and Girls Club Building Certificate
- Lesson Plan: 1st Grade
- Lesson Plan: 2nd Grade
- Lesson Plan: 4th Grade
- Printable Valentine’s Day Cards
Lesson Plans and Build Guides for 5th – 8th Graders
NAHB Playhouse Build Guide
The NAHB Playhouse was designed to be assembled by students in 5th through 8th grade using components that are prefabricated by adult volunteers or students enrolled in a high school carpentry program. The playhouse is 4’ x 6’ and designed for outdoor use. The design may be modified if it will remain indoors.
- NAHB playhouse building instructions
- Project overview PowerPoint presentation
- Component fabrication PowerPoint presentation
- Playhouse assembly PowerPoint presentation
- Drawings #1-7
Lesson Plans
NAHB partnered with the Department of Construction Science at Texas A&M University to create lesson plans that building professionals can use to encourage interest in construction careers at the middle school level (5th-8th grades).
The goals of each lesson plan are to engage the students, fit in a teacher’s required curriculum and be applicable for schools across the U.S. Each lesson plan includes a hands-on activity where students apply the math and science principles being taught. To facilitate a building professional entering a classroom and teaching a class, these lesson plans were written to fit within the specific curriculum that is covered in each grade and to be applicable in as many states as possible.
The broadest set of education standards are found in the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI). The CCSSI has produced core standards in math and language arts that have been adopted in 48 states. The CCSSI were used for the math lesson plans. For science, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) were used, which have the broadest adoption across states for science curriculum.
Since each state and the school districts in those states will vary in how their curriculum is developed, building professionals seeking to offer a lesson should consult with the school principal to identify where a lesson will be most appropriate. In addition to the lesson plan, a detailed script of what a builder would want to say and do during the lesson also is provided, along with the necessary student handouts.
- Lesson Plan: Creating a Complete Electrical Circuit – 5th Grade
- Lesson Plan: Collaboration and Communication in Construction – 5th Grade
- Lesson Plan: Residential Home Expense – 5th Grade
- Lesson Plan: Green Building – 5th Grade
- Lesson Plan: Tiny House Design – 5th-6th Grades
- Lesson Plan: Cost of Building a Home – 6th Grade
- Lesson Plan: Energy Consumption in Home Building – 6th-7th Grades
- Lesson Plan: Marble Roller Coaster – 6th-7th Grades
- Lesson Plan: Home Design – 7th-8th Grades
Activities for 9th – 12th Graders
Picnic Table Competition and Build Guide
The NAHB Picnic Table Competition and Build resource was developed as a hands-on activity/project for high school/secondary student chapters. Student Chapters and HBAs may use this resource to host a picnic table competition among chapters or for a classroom or community project.
Host a Student Competition
NAHB’s Secondary Schools Construction Management (SSMC) “Competition in a Box” is explicitly packaged for HBAs to implement locally. The comprehensive guide provides a template for every competition phase so HBA staff can run the program for students in their community.
The three-hour competition involves residential plan reading and quantity take-off skills. The objectives for the SSMC are:
- To provide high school students with an opportunity to develop and showcase residential plan-reading and quantity take-off skills;
- To provide local HBAs a venue for identifying and interacting with high school students who may wish to enter the residential construction field; and,
- To expose high school students to the supervisory and management skills needed in residential construction.
Internships
The Student Internship Resources for NAHB members guide focuses on how home builders can engage with three different talent resources to meet these needs: secondary (high school) students in career and technical (CTE) education programs, community college students, and university students.
This guide can also assist the home builder in understanding how secondary schools, colleges and universities may offer work-study student-learning opportunities and deciding which type of student resource best fits the company’s needs.
