Dogwood Town

A Journey Through Block Play and Community Building

by Amy Striem

As a longtime educator and current First Grade teacher at a small progressive elementary school, I know (and continue to be amazed) that every corner of the classroom holds the potential to foster growth, from counting blocks to sharing stories, negotiating conflicts, and engineering block structures. Block play is a versatile tool, offering a canvas for creativity and social learning. Join us on a journey creating Dogwood Town, where blocks transcended their role to become community-building tools infused with our builders' boundless creativity, compassion, and imagination.

Our adventure begins with the essential question: What creates impact? How do you distinguish between needs and wants? Through lively discussions and journal reflections, our children wonder what sustains animals and people, extending their wonders from the classroom to the broader community's needs and desires. We make a comprehensive list with charts as our canvases, nurturing critical thinking and communication skills from the earliest years. "Let’s make healthy food less expensive in the food store," suggests one excited student.

After much deliberation and compromise, our students craft a vision for Dogwood Town, complete with essential establishments - a hospital with a pharmacy, a school boasting an expansive playground, a community center housing a bustling library and swimming pool, a food store, a restaurant, hair salon and fire and police station. But our town isn't all work and no play; we make room for fun with a café, an arcade, and an ice cream truck! Working in groups, our young architects sketch the exteriors of their buildings, paying attention to details like windows, doors, and signage. With Sharpies in hand and watercolors at the ready, they bring their vibrant designs to life.

As our children create Dogwood Town within our classroom, we introduce them to cartography. Inspired by stories like "Martha Maps it Out" by Leigh Hodgkinson and "Finding Frank” by Anne Bollman,  our students quickly become mapping experts. Keeping it simple, we sketch two intersecting streets on giant paper, adding buildings, trees, vehicles, and, most importantly, ourselves. With Dogwood Town's map complete, our next community decision is unanimous - Let’s Build Dogwood!

The transition from paper to blocks inspires a new phase of our journey. With help from our woodshop and design thinking teacher, we construct sturdy walls to bring our buildings to life. Through trial and error, our students master building techniques learning valuable spatial reasoning and teamwork lessons. Yet, challenges abound; initial attempts yield oversized buildings and crowded streets with no room for trees or grass. We rethink our designs, emphasizing smaller buildings, green spaces, and accessible entrances. With guidance from math teachers, we use unifix cubes to measure paper for our streets.

The building process is not without setbacks; collapses are met with resilience, and compromises pave the way for innovation. Block play becomes the curriculum, fostering problem-solving skills, perseverance, and empathy. Some days, blocks looked like a game of Twister with shoes off, holding our classmates' hands as we carefully moved in and out of the town, adding details.

Our students infuse their creations with optimism and compassion, envisioning a community where healthy food is accessible, hospitals are welcoming and colorful, and generosity abounds. “The restaurant and food store should donate to the community center cafe,” one child tells friends. Another child adds, “You should be able to get free food for volunteering. We can all help.”

During the final share with families, our students proudly present their creations, highlighting every detail, from miniature books to tiny hairbrushes. While the family share captures the essence of Dogwood Town, it cannot encapsulate the countless moments of joy, frustration, and growth that shaped our journey. As we bid farewell to Dogwood Town and tidy up our blocks, we know the lessons learned will endure, laying the foundation for a lifetime of learning and community building and perhaps some future architects, builders, designers, and city planners!

Teachers: Amy Striem and Erin Brown.

Woodshop and Design Thinking Teacher: Christopher Murphy.