First grade students have been studying neighborhood communities. They learned that communities are places where people work, live, learn, play and help each other. They took field trips into the Englewood community that included the police station, fire station, and a grocery store. As a culminating activity of this study each class is building an imaginative 3-D community called "Kids Town." Each child has created a building that can be found in a neighborhood community. The children are working collaboratively to build the town by creating objects such as cars,streets, traffic signs, parks, fire hydrants, etc.
Also our students are learning about maps. They learned that maps help people to find places, and that there are many different kinds of maps, including maps of towns, states, countries, the world, subway maps, trail maps, etc. During field trips in the Englewood community, the children had an opportunity to see how maps were helpful to police officers and fire fighters for keeping the neighborhood safe. The students also made their own maps. They learned that to create a map, you must imagine what a place looks like from above. They created a variety of their own maps including, maps of their bedrooms, classroom maps, and a map of the E.M.S. campus, including technological programs such as Google Earth, and Neighborhood Map Machine.
(Post: Ms. Lowell)
