Plan the World's Best Neighborhood Park

Social Studies/Art

Children will design a plan for a new and wonderful neighborhood park.

Divide the class into small groups. Tell the children that you would like each group to draw a design, or plan, for a wonderful new neighborhood park—the best park in the whole world!
Ask the groups to brainstorm lists of features their parks will have. You might want to suggest some of these features: a picnic area, a playground area (equipped with swings, slides, seesaws, jungle gyms, forts, sand piles, and so on), a baseball field, a soccer field, tennis courts, a basketball court, a swimming pool, benches, trees and garden areas, restrooms, a parking area, signs, and trash containers. Remind children that since this is to be the greatest park ever built, they can include every feature their hearts desire. Also ask them to remember that since the park will be visited by people of many ages, they should include features everyone can use and enjoy.
Have the group members work together to draw or assemble their park plans on construction paper. Children can take turns drawing different features directly on construction paper, or they may want to draw each feature on a separate piece of paper and glue it in position on the construction paper. Children may need to tape or staple pieces of construction paper together to accommodate all of their planned features.
Display each group's plan and ask a group member to point out the plan's details. You may want to have the class vote to decide which plan does, indeed, depict the best park in the world.