Preschoolers build their own ‘city’

By Sophia Fischer sfischeracorn@yahoo.com

You can bet that preschoolers at the Oak Park Neighborhood School don’t know Hillary Rodham Clinton, but nevertheless they embraced her "It takes a village," philosophy.

It took six weeks for 51 preschool students in three classes to create a miniature city made of blocks, clay and fabric. The project allowed students to become architects and developers as they planned, designed and built the miniature city themselves.

The preschool program is housed on the Oak Hills Elementary School campus in Oak Park. The project occupied the school’s entire multipurpose room stage for one week.

"I don’t know if it was because my son worked on it, but I thought it was pretty impressive," said Christopher Gorelik, of Oak Park, whose son, Maxwell, 4, is a student.

The idea to build their own city resulted from the students’ interest in the world around them.

First, they discussed what factors make for a wonderful place to live. They studied houses and maps to come up with ideas of their town.

They toured the Oak Park neighborhood where their school is located and paid a visit to the church across the street. One of the teachers, Laura Carroll, brought in architecture books with pictures of buildings in Europe.

The children argued over what color the sky should be and devised ways to represent the sky, sun, moon, stars, mountains, rivers and forests.

They visited a fabric store and returned with various fabrics, including silver for the moon and green for the mountains. A debate over the the sky’s color ended when the children settled on a deep purple material.

"They had a disagreement about the sky because some of them said it isn’t always blue," said Jim MacNerland, a teacher at the school. "They thought about making it black, but others said it isn’t always black." Some students built hospitals, schools and hotels. Others built highways. Those who did not want to use blocks used clay to create airplanes, people, animals, boats and trains.

"Making the mountains was my favorite part," said Alyssa Exler, 4.

All the buildings were first designed on paper. It took three days to build the city, which covered the entire school multipurpose room stage. The city was displayed for two days.

"We walked through it and said let’s tell stories of the people and their dogs, the airplanes, whatever we see," MacNerland said.

When it was time to take the city down, one child who was more upset than others was designated the "memory maker" and took photos of the project.

"Everyone had a part in this project," MacNerland said. "It was very satisfying."

The Oak Park Neighborhood School opened its doors in 2002 and is based on an Italian philosophy called Reggio Emilia which promotes independence, a higher level of thinking and communication. The curriculum is based on the students’ ideas and areas of interest so that every year is different.