Project-Based Work: The City

In our program the children learn through “project-based work”. Unlike a unit, a project develops more organically. It is often initiated by the children and the educators take into account children’s questions and curiosities about the world around them. Projects are planned to offer choices to children in order to use their skills in a meaningful context and may involve them in different kinds of activity in different groupings. The city project, as many projects do, continued for a long period of time and may venture off in different directions. Projects like this one connect children to their work; they take more ownership and pride in what they are doing. They become more thoughtful about their choices. When working through a project, children will also naturally have to learn appropriate emotional responses to success and failure in themselves and others; a life skill that is not so easily taught! Our project came to a very natural end as the group members decided that they were finally done. I can say with great confidence that this was a rich learning experience that uncovered much of our curriculum in math, language, the arts, science and social and emotional development.   

Here is our journey of our city project:

November

We took a trip to the School of Architecture and downtown Cambridge to extend our skyscraper inquiry

The children began building replicas of buildings they saw on the trip in the classroom

Entire cities were beginning to emerge during play

A giant box was brought in to provoke the children to build with it. They decided to build a city on it

The children negotiated and decided on many things for the city including how to use the box, what should be in the city (i.e., a school, church, library,  playground, a “work”, a store for food and clothing, an airport and houses) and placement of these things within the city

The children explored with colour mixing to get the perfect “sky blue” for the backdrop

After agreeing to use plasticine as a material to use in the city, we researched author and artist Barbra Reid’s plasticine techniques to create clouds

The children decided to make a sun using salt dough. We measured, mixed and moulded salt dough into a sun. We ran into some disappointment when the sun did not dry. We were forced to re-evaluate our plan. We decided to use plasticine!

We researched different buildings in our neighbourhood before we began building them. We looked at shapes and what most buildings have and need.  We also started planning our church and library.

 

 

December/January

December was brief due to the holidays. During these months we started planning, painting and constructing the church and library. Some of our group members changed but the interest was still there, so we pursued! The children decided that they would only use recycled tissue boxes for the buildings…so every time we went through a tissue box at school we would save it. This eventually led to conversations about recycling and the importance of being mindful about and respecting our environment.

 February/March
brought more mapping and the painting of roads, sand and parking spots. As the children continued in their everyday play new ideas for the city emerged. We found some excellent materials to use for a swing set and sandbox for the park.

 

April

April turned out to be the busiest month and oddly enough the closing month for the city project. There seemed to be a resurgence of interest in the city. Many children who were not initially involved in the project began bringing items from elsewhere in the classroom and using the city as a setting for their play. The city group liked this idea and so the city began growing again. Through their play the children realized that the city people needed to be safe, so they built a fire station and a police station. They came to realize that people also like to be entertained, so the children created a restaurant and added animals to the park to create a zoo and aquarium. New materials were once again introduced to keep the interest and thinking alive.   

The Art Show

The grand finale for the city project came when we learned that the public library was hosting a student art show. Students from Monsignor Doyle high school were looking for art pieces made by students from recycled materials. When we passed the news onto the children they were so excited at the prospect of other people enjoying their city. They were especially excited that our city will be going to the city; the same place that we became more familiar with during our trip five months ago! Before being transported we made sure to glue all loose parts down.

A few days later Ms. Silveira visited the library and took pictures of the city at the library. She brought the photos back to school to show the children. The children were beaming with pride and excited to see another child appreciating the city.

Though there were ebbs and flows in the process (which always do occur in project work) I feel confident in saying that the children were proud of the final piece. The city now sits in our classroom as a piece of artwork to be admired by all visitors to the class.