Thursday, October 10, 2013

Kindergarten Town Planning Inc.


Kindergarten Town Planning Inc.

 “Do buildings come in different shapes and sizes?”

This was a big question as we began our Let’s Build unit of inquiry in Kindergarten. We investigated buildings from our local community to across the world and we were quick to gather the answer to our question “Yes!”  However our next question was “why?”’

We began to look at the work of the Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi. We studied his buildings in wonderment and awe! The children posed question after question as to how he had built these structures and why? As we gathered answers to our questions we became inspired to create our own design for a building. However a building standing alone wouldn’t do, we needed a CITY.

This involved much discussion as we were challenged to decide on which buildings would be most essential for a city to function. Through a thoughtful elimination process a democratic decision was made. Kindergarten Yellow would construct a grocery store, airport, school, shopping centre, church, hospital, fire station, police station and a train station.

The children volunteered as to who would be responsible for which building. In small groups they began to plan designs drawing from the inspiration of Antoni Gaudi. Much thought was given to the aesthetics of the building as well as the function.



The children drew from their designs to create the exterior of their buildings. This involved the consideration of form, colour and shape. Through much cutting, pasting and positioning the buildings began to take their form.




The final step involved the interior designs for the buildings. Creative, imaginative and innovative conversations filled the room as simple recycled materials transformed into new and novel objects! 



Visit the furniture store or lolly shop.
Take a seat in the airport.  

Or at the school?



Or perhaps you would like to visit a
bathroom made for two?



Have a seat on the patio. It's alright for the children
to be there - a garden fence has been installed!
This TV room was too dark so the children added
a skylight!



Essential Services




“It doesn’t matter what shape or colour buildings all that matters is it is sturdy and strong.”  Kindergarten Yellow, 2013.

Creating an Environment


Step 1. Paint green for trees

Step 2. Cut our tree shapes

Step 3. After gluing on bottle tops, attach the trees to their trunks with nails and a hammer




We couldn't plan a town without thinking about the environment! Kindergarten used their knowledge of recycling to create some beautiful features for our town. Bottle tops, spare chopsticks and slices of wood from a fallen tree have been used by the children to solve the problem of how to keep these items erect in our installation.



Road safety has also played a role in the development of our town. Kindergarten Orange worked hard to create replica of traffic lights for the road. They even ensured that the lights were on a silver (metal) pole!

Creating buildings out of paper weaving



We were inspired by an artwork we saw to make buildings out of paper weaving. We began by weaving different coloured paper to make the bricks.


We then collected boxes to cover with our paper weaving.


We decided that our boxes could be placed on top of each other to make taller builings.





Kindergarten Team

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