City Walk

Monday was a great day for a walk. We went out to see what we could see in our city. Last week we looked high up in the city from the fourth floor windows. This time we planned to look low down in the city. Before we left, we predicted what we might see: steps, houses, clouds, trees, grass, a STOP sign.

We walked the six blocks around Church Square Park, stopping frequently to observe our surroundings. We looked down at our feet to see we were standing on a sidewalk! One child knew there are pipes under the sidewalk – we’d revisit that idea later in our walk. We saw a tree outside school, just like we’d predicted, but also noticed the trash can and bus stop it stands next to.

The children probably haven’t spent much time in the library, stores, or restaurants, around the park this past year. But they looked for clues to try and guess what happens inside each building. We saw signs and could even read some of them. “Two chilis, that’s a food place”, “A restaurant”, “A dog washing place”, “An H like in my name”.

We noticed a circle – a manhole cover. Thomas told us it goes to the pipes under the road and we saw the drains that connect to it.

The children weren’t sure the purpose of the large building at 4th and Willow. At the end of the day we read a book about an ambulance and there was a hospital that looked similar to our mystery building.

By the end of our walk we had a long list of things that we saw or experienced. We’ll keep looking at our surroundings as we continue our city study.