Building by building... - Lincoln Nursery School

When we began our work thinking about cities, we asked the children what they thought made up a city. What do cities have or need?

“Buildings”

“Churches”

“Apartments”

“Giant buildings”

“Windows”

"Doors"

What are cities but many buildings that have sprung up, clustered together. Saul Melman’s Best of All Possible Worlds, better known by the children as “Doors” gave us an opportunity to break down the children’s exploring about cities.

Bringing the children in small groups to the “doors”, we wondered with them about the kind of buildings that would surround these doors. We had the children choose one of Saul’s doors and draw their idea of a building that it opened to.

“Ahhh, I wish we were building the buildings.” -Miles

"This is me and this is Rosalie and these are the children. This is the sky and this is the windows. It's a house." -Charlotte

"It's a big tower. I saw this tower in Boston one day. Oh yeah, this is in New York. It's a really special old building." -Miles

"This is the door!" -Caroline

"Yeah, mine could be about a skyscraper. It has doors for doggies and cats to go in. It's a building I'm gonna be 17 in." -Louis

"House. (It's...) Back here." -Ian

"That's the door and that's the chicken house." -Tait

"This one goes to a house. I made this house so it doesn't have a door knob. And that's a doorbell." -Addie

"A smiley face building. It's a museum building...I put tiny windows for hot dogs...This is moss. (later) It's a marshmallow building. It's a grocery store. They sell marshmallows." -Ruthie

"This is the doors and that's the walls. It's Legoland." -Wes

"I'm making a big farmhouse. This is the pathway to the chicken house. This is the pathway to the horses. This is the door. This is where the nocturnals live. The minks. The possums." -Rosalie

"Those are windows. It's a school...it's a tiny school." -Travers

"I'm gonna draw a building that's already. A museum. It has a door. It has a climbing thing and number 2 cards. A climbing thing for kids." -Julia

"A museum. Sculptures. (what's inside?)" -Charlie S.

"There's a fire inside my building. This is the door...It's a small building." -Luca

"It's a tall building. I used this door (double door). The doors (bottom part of drawing) are in front of the building." -Charlie N.

"I picked the door we could go under. Actually, I don't want that one...I know how I'm gonna make it, it has a little door. Mine's a skyscraper. It touches the sky." -Case

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