City Blocks and Building Blocks: Exploring Our Community and Applying Math, ELA, SEL and More
Abby Ginsberg
(co-teacher Olivia Reny)
First graders in Abby Ginsberg and co-teacher Olivia Reny’s classroom authentically learn math, parts of speech, civics, and more by exploring their community first-hand through a play-based approach.
Watching my students erupt in ideas, beam with pride, and work through challenges is absolutely nothing that could have been taught through textbooks! Meaningful, authentic learning comes through in a classroom centered around play-based learning, developmentally appropriate curriculum, and supportive place-based environments.
Project Narrative
This spring, we put our architect hard hats on and dove deep into community! We used our background knowledge of communities in the past and our own experiences as members of a
community, to inspire bringing our city of Bridgeport, Connecticut to life in our own classroom.
We launched with the mentor text, Windows by Julia Denos, which allowed us to see communities from multiple viewpoints. Motivated by the different community perspectives in the story, first graders set out on a neighborhood walk around our school, using three important tools to understand their surroundings: cardboard viewfinders, 2D/3D shape keys, and their own five senses!
The days following our neighborhood walk were quite busy (and loud! and messy! and playful!). After reading Iggy Peck, Architect! by Andrea Beaty, we used real images from our neighborhood walk as a guide to our block building exploration. This is where first graders use their math brains to work through frustration and show grit during their play to map out and recreate the entire city block!
Inspired by the book Hey, Wall! A Story of Art and Community by Susan Verde and the students’
artist study of Romare Bearden, the first graders created multiple classroom murals influenced by the different shapes, colors, and textures Bridgeport has to offer.
We wove ELA into our spring explorations, with students writing community acrostic poems, “How To Build A Community” books, and filling in “Madlibs,” using nouns/verbs/adjectives. Throughout or community explorations, we had a “First Grade Bodega,” with a real working cash register. It served a our “third teacher,” allowing space for dramatic play while giving students opportunities to practice math and money skills and apply language they learned from learning about their communities.
Students demonstrated their learning in various ways so there were multiple means to assess which felt fair to all learners.Our classroom came to life with things like a “Loose Parts Stoplight”, city signs, stained glass skyscrapers, and graphs devoted to opinions on the best type of community to live in! All of our hard work was documented in a collaborative book which details the process of our community learning!
Measuring Impact
Assessing student learning outcomes, standards met, skills developed, and community impact.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
- Assessment
- Before each activity we did a review and assessed prior knowledge in real time, scaffolding as necessary.
- We assessed important benchmarks for ELA standards (inventive spelling, parts of speech, letter formation, poetry, and “How To”), math (ability to create composite shapes, comparing and contrasting the attributes of 2D/3D shapes), and SEL (naming feeling, using growth mindset vocabulary, practicing self regulation strategies and flexibility).
- All along we were using dramatic play to assess how their learning is reflecting in their independent motivations.
- Students were engaged and striving to show their best selves and do their best thinking and learning.
- Students had the opportunity to show their understanding of math concepts, language structure, community and more.
- Students collaborated and communicated with one another in a meaningful way and practiced SEL skills
Meeting Standards and Developing Learners
- Comprehension and Collaboration:
- Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 1 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.(CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.1)
- Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion).(CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.1.A)
- Build on others’ talk in conversations by responding to the comments of others through multiple exchanges.(CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.1.B)
- Ask questions to clear up any confusion about the topics and texts under discussion.(CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.1.C)
- Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.(CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.2)
- Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says in order to gather additional information or clarify something that is not understood. (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.3)
- With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.
- Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas:
- Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings clearly. (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.4)
- Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.(CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.5)
- Produce complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.6)
- Literature
- With prompting and support, read prose and poetry of appropriate complexity for grade 1.
- Geography and Maps (using maps to help us understand the history of our community)
- Construct maps, graphs and other representations of familiar places.(GEO 1.1)
- Use maps, graphs, photographs and other representations to describe places and the relationships and interactions that shape them.(GEO 1.2)
- Use maps, globes, and other simple geographic models to identify cultural and environmental characteristics of places.(GEO 1.3 )
- History
- Compare life in the past to life in the present.(HIST 1.1 )
- Generate questions about individuals and groups who have shaped a significant historical change.(HIST 1.2)
- Compare perspectives of people in the past to those in the present.(HIST 1.3 )
- Reason with shapes and their attributes.
- Mixing colors and painting paper for collages
- Drawing and cutting geometric shapes
- Understanding of art concepts such as horizon lines, texture, and basic composition techniques
- Introduction to art and artists
- Using drawings to illustrate written work and presentations.
- The Relationship Between Family, School, and Community (the ways in which communities changed, how peoples’ beliefs change over time)
- Citizenship in Our Community (how rules in school and community changed over time and why)
- Our Needs as a Community (how the way people made a living changed in the community)
Links and Downloadable Materials
Resources
Windows by Julia Denos
Hey, Wall! By Susan Verde
Iggy Peck, Architect! by Andrea Beaty
- cardboard viewfinders
- camera
- various types of blocks
- paper
- paint
- scissors
- pencil
- printed book from Kinkos
