A collaborative map was the intention, however the outcome turned into something much more meaningful, giving us insight into how the children think and view the community.

During week five, the children were prompted to imagine their community on paper. Their inspiration was the centre piece picture of their school in the middle of our poster board, and from there the way the community looked was completely up to them.The children recognized the importance of roads, standing stop signs, traffic lights, and even crosswalks in a community, each one of them bringing new ideas to what we could collaboratively add to our work.

One child said confidently, “well, the stop sign needs to stand up!” From there this child grabbed some cardboard and tape and negotiated with different ideas of how we could make this happen. Finally, the child achieved this, and our “map” was becoming 3D!

Not only did they include houses, cars, and typical things we see in our communities, but their creative minds prompted them to add race cars, race tracks, ginormous flowers, and more!