Neighborhood under construction in preschool

Building a neighborhood together will strengthen your classroom community!

The process of building our own neighborhood would have to be considered one of my most favorite or at least right up there at the top of the list of favorite studies we did last year.  I will share with you what we did and why I place it so high up on my list of favorites…

Beginning with a Story

Like we do on most occasions in my classroom, we began our study with a focus on houses. We read the book How a House is Built by Gail Gibbons…

My original thought was to focus solely on houses but houses naturally lead to neighborhoods and community…

After reading our book about houses, we took a few minutes to look over a blueprint that I stole borrowed from my husband’s construction office…

Making Real-world Connections

We talked about the different parts of the blueprint including the lines and measurements and windows and doors and other aspects, without going into too much detail, that a blueprint of a house provides for constructing a house…

The children were then sent off to explore our centers for the morning.  At the easel, the children found rulers and pencils and highlighters to expand the idea of creating a blueprint of their own…

I had included some drawings on the paper already to give them a place to start but the children mostly used the pencils and rulers to draw lines in various directions which I thought was great skill building work in itself…

Designing a Cardboard Community

At the table, the children found cardboard house shapes that they were invited to personalize any way they wished…

A slit was cut in the bottom of each house shape so a small cardboard rectangle could be placed inside the slits to help the houses stand on our large table later on…

Every house was unique in design and included many of the different parts that we had pointed out during our circle time discussion…

Constructing Roads and Pathways

Once the children completed their houses, they took them over to the large table covered with butcher paper and stood them up.  In the mean time, two of our students got busy making roads on our butcher paper with black construction paper and chalk…

The children used glue sticks to tack the roads down on the paper. The children worked together until the roads went all the way around our paper…

Exploring their Neighborhood

The entire morning was an amazing sight of young children working together to build their neighborhood. From exploring the blueprint process to designing houses to building roads, the children stayed engaged and focused and continued to each work at their own pace at what they found to be the most interesting part of the process…

Adding to their Community

Throughout the morning, the children continued to add roads and houses to our paper and then came the cars, signs, people, and animals from our block center…

The neighborhood was left open for play and for adding more items throughout the morning…

Why we Love the Process

So  why was this unit at the top of my list? The first reason is because the children were engaged in the process and each contributed something a little different to the process. The second reason is because of the collaboration that was involved and how that collaboration truly resulted in a community that you could both feel and see…

The third reason is because the process invited creativity, writing,  pretend play, cutting, gluing, coloring, construction, engineering, math and the list of skills goes on. The fourth reason is because the entire day was rich with new words and language such as construction, elevation, blueprint, design, measurement and so on.  Finally, I loved how the process was both open ended and yet intentional. The making of the houses and roads were intentional at each center but  each center then led to the community in the middle and  was open ended in design, play, conversation, and materials….

Available on Amazon

Links to Grow on

Three Little Pigs and a DIY puppet stage by Teach Preschool

House Painting by Brick by Brick

Measure the House by Let’s Explore

H is for House from Play and Learn with Dana

 Rainbow Village Printable by Inner Child Fun

Deborah J Stewart

Deborah J Stewart

Every time I think I know everything I need to know about teaching young children, God says, "Hold on a minute!" and gives me a new challenge.

Let me tell ya...

With each new challenge that you overcome, you will find yourself better equipped and more passionate about teaching young children.

God didn't call wimps to lead, teach, or care for His children. Nope, he has high expectations, so get ready. You will have to give your very best but after teaching for over 30 years, I can tell you that it is a wonderful and rewarding journey.

Whenever your calling feels hard, just remember, 'He who began a good work in you (and in the children you serve) will be faithful to complete it.'

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