These two teachers combined forces to create an Eastern Woodland Native American Village. The Architects did a great deal of research on how these structures were built, including actually visiting a reconstructed site. The planning was all done in unison, and the children in both classes met to share ideas about what they were learning. The team began by teaching the concepts of plan, section and elevation. The students started by making floor plans of their classroom and elevation of their school building to scale. They looked at many pictures of wigwams, drew plans for their own dwellings, and looked at referece materials to see what would go inside. When the time came to construct the model, a different approach was taken for each class, which took their skill-levels into consideration. Compare the third grade class's model above with the first grades' below. The team made base structures for the first graders to clad with paper and sticks to represent the bark. The fourth graders made the base structures themselves - you can actually slip the bark skin of these buildings off to see the base intact. This reflects the construction process of the actual dwellings. Each class created their own forest mural, gardens and firepits to reflect what they had learned from their reading, research and sharing. The children gathered the natural materials themselves.
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