Sunday, March 13, 2011

Kindergarten Cities

I've been trying to get all of my Kindergarten classes back on the same schedule now that I don't have any double classes (PRAISE THE LORD!) so I've had a few one-class projects.  This is one of them!  I was thinking about all of the things that the Arts can teach and realized that I sometimes need to do a better job of letting students solve their own problems.  I can be too quick to just answer their questions so I've been focusing on talking them through it and letting the students come up with their own solutions.  Anyway, I thought that working together in small groups to design cities would be a good way to foster creativity, teamwork, and critical thinking and problem solving.

I put a piece of colored butcher paper on each table with some pencils and crayons and told the students they needed to work together to make a city.  We talked about some things that cities might need like schools, hospitals, stores, etc. but my favorites were things the students came up with all on their own.  It was really interesting to see how the different groups interacted.  We had some little leaders who delegated tasks to other students, some groups really collaborated as they moved around the table and inspired new ideas, and some groups had members who worked pretty independently.
Naming their city, took a few tries to get "Kansas" spelled right!
 
This student wanted to draw a "sewer gator" and insisted that they are real, even though other students argued with him.
Sorry it's sideways... this sign says something about can I kick you... I can't remember exactly and I can't read it!
 
Mail plane!
Building on fire, fire truck putting it out.
 

3 comments:

  1. How wonderful these turned out - bet your students were thoroughly 'engaged'!!

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  2. great idea! I'll have to try that with my kinders. Maybe at the end of class I'll give them little matchbox cars to drive around their city;)

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