Building a Town or City: A Geometry Excursion for Grades 1–2

Students plan, design, and construct a town or city made from classroom blocks. The class reads a story about, and thinks about the work of, an architect. Students ask their families about local buildings that are important to them and use that information to think about what they would include if they were to design and build a town or city. Then, pairs use blocks to design and construct a building. They make a sketch of it and then reassemble their building on the class “map”. They share and discuss their work with others.

This Excursion involves 5 activities, to be done in sequence, and includes links to reproducible resources.

Download Buildings Grades 1–2

This excursion really allowed students who don’t feel successful in math otherwise to be a math person. … It allowed them to have this moment of ‘I can be good at math, just in different ways,’ so that was nice.”