Planning a Park

Planning a simple community project will help children see how, with some imagination and a willingness to compromise, a variety of interests can be reconciled.

Tell the children they have the chance to plan a square-block park for their community, to be used mainly by old people and children. The class's job is to determine what they want in the park, what older children want there, and what old people want. Then, they have to figure out what should actually be put in the park.

Procedure

1. Begin by asking children about parks they have been to, and what they enjoyed there. Encourage them to bring in pictures of parks they like, or to draw pictures of favorite park features. These may include play equipment such as slides and bandboxes as well as natural features like ponds and trees. Keep a bulletin board list with pictures of class preferences.
2. Next, assign everyone to interview either an old person or an older child about what they would like in a park. Try to get an even distribution between interviewers of the aged and of older children. The class questionnaire can be very simple:

Imagine you can help plan a square-block park for children and the aged. What features would you want it to have?
What suggestions do you have as to how the wants of old people and the wants of the children can be filled in the same park?

3. When the questionnaires are brought in, ask the children to help you make two blackboard lists: what the aged want, and what older children want in the park.
4. Then, talk about how the park can be planned.

Does it look easy?
Do the children in the class, the older children, and the aged want any of the same things? Do they want many different things?
What if your class did it all its way, or all the old peoples' way -- would the rest be happy? Would it be fair?
Among the answers to the questionnaires are there some good suggestions on how to compromise?

5. For the actual planning of the park, set up a large piece of butcher paper as the basis for a kind of puzzle. If there are some park features all the groups want, the children can make pictures of these and place the pictures on the butcher paper (it is important that all features be moveable). Do whatever preplanning you think is necessary so that the children's pictures will fit proportionally on the butcher paper. The drawings can be done on stiff paper that you have precut and shaped properly.
6. Next, decide on the three or so features most important to each group of park users. Have students draw these features on moveable papers as before. Then give every student a chance to work with a small group on arranging the parts of the park in the best way. Have the class vote on the final plan, but be sure to give dissenters a full chance to explain and suggest changes. The ideal is to have everyone agree on the final park plan.

Return to the previous lesson.

Proceed to the next lesson.

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