Celebrating Our Community

Celebrating our community

It seems like an appropriate time to celebrate the community that we are both at here East and in New Canaan. Our first grade classes spent time this fall studying communities and our town of New Canaan as part of their social studies curriculum. As a culminating, authentic learning experience to their unit of study, each classroom collaborated as a community of learners to take on the role of park planners in our community. Their task was to suggest ways to create a playground at Irwin Park that could be used and enjoyed by the New Canaan community.

There were many problem solving opportunities embedded in this park-planning experience.  There were plenty of decisions to be made in the planning and the careful thought given to these decisions by these first graders was evident. For instance, the entrance to the park in one plan was carefully placed with parking a fair distance from where children would be playing on the swings and slides in order to ensure safety. The parks included trash cans, snack bars, bike paths, and more. The classes also included “rules” for different parts of their park, recognizing the role that such rules play in maintaining the safety of all citizens in a community. 

All of this work was undertaken with the goal to give the community a place to enjoy time and friends. Here’s to more of this wonderful learning in the year ahead!

Happy 2013!

Take care,

Kris