The City That Center PM Built

Reporting by L. Jasmine Dobbs-Marsh, Teacher

Over the span of a week, the children of Center PM raised a city from the ground. Armed with small wooden blocks, Elmer’s glue and their own knowledge and imagination, the children became construction workers, architects and city planners. The city emerged gradually—with housing and commercial buildings, a complex network of roads and rivers and features such as green spaces, parks and even a city hall. As they embarked upon this process, the children explored and shared their knowledge about the spaces in which people lead their lives. They also connected their city to The Curious Garden (by Peter Brown), a book read at storytime that week, and built new ideas and narratives about cities and city life. ­­

Constructing a City

“Look what I’m building. In the city the construction workers build the buildings.”–Santi

“These are towers, skyscrapers.”–Mason

“There’s a skyscraper here too. This building is like an upside down T.”–Kaenon

“Parks are at cities. Like this. Parks have play structures. But some parks don’t have play structures, only grass and trees.”–Elise

“Look. I can make two ramps for a skateboard park. They skate on ramps. And a small cylinder thing they can balance on.”–Kaenon 

“Dada go to a skateboard park and I ride my scooter to the skateboard park.”–Hugo

“This is the United States. That’s in this world.” –Max

“What do you think this is? It’s a train! For the city!”–Zoe

“I’m going to use this big one. It will be a park. Right in the middle.”–Terra

“I’m making a garage. It’s going to be big!”–James

“We need a fire department. The cars can be firetrucks. I’ll put red on it. It needs windows.”–Jonathan

“I’m making a motorcycle. It’s a police motorcycle. This police motorcycle can fly to the tops of buildings.”–Daniel

“I’m making a police motorcycle too! And they need a police department where the police work. The police department needs to be blue.”–Zion

“Do you think the people in this city have any places to eat? That’s what I was wondering! What if they don’t? Then they’ll be very hungry and they’ll have to eat the glue.”–Elise

“Well I made a restaurant.”–Aaron

 

Conceptualizing Transportation: Roads and Rivers

“A city needs cars. And a road. Okay, I’ll make a car. The road can turn over here. And here.” –Zeke

“Here’s houses. And there’s a flat one. It’s a road. It’s by the houses.”–Callum

“Let’s draw the road over here…Oh no. This place that I drawed was too small for a road. So I think I might make it a river.”–Zeke

“The river goes through the houses. And the people can swim in it.”–Danny

“And they can fish.”–Tamara

“They need a bridge over the river. Then the cars can go.” –Zeke

“This is gonna be a sign so it goes right by the road. Can I write on it? Alma…”–Sam

“I could make a stop sign. It’s red. And it says S-T-O-P.”–Sydney

“I need to make a tree, but I need green and brown.”–Zoe C.

Stories About Our City

“Once upon a time there was a city. There was a lot of snow and the whole city didn’t get any grass. There’s only boys in this city because girls have a city of their own.”–Patrick

“No! Girls don’t have their own city. Boys don’t either. They have the same city.” –Victoria

“Well there aren’t any cars in this city.”–Natalie

“Yes there are! Look. There’s lots of cars!”–Zachary

“I know how you could describe the highline in a city. Like a monorail—a monorail goes on top of the ground. A subway goes underground. Like BART. A monorail has one rail. Not two like normal trains. Cities also have walls—like the Great Wall of China—to keep bad guys out. It tried, but some people still got in.”–Tilden