Elementary School Students Build Cardboard Cities
By Amanda Becker, The Wisconsin State Journal
Mar. 4–An ideal city needs a delicatessen, Toni Kreutzer decided, because a deli is where her dad works.
So the third-grader’s addition to the Falk Elementary School’s contribution to Terrace Town was a place for her dad, a deli.
After months of constructing miniature cardboard buildings and houses, more than 800 students from 10 Dane County elementary schools brought their box cities to Monona Terrace Friday.
The young architects and carpenters-in-training also brought their yellow hard hats with them, and spread their cities, like urban picnics, on green tarps representing the land, applying duct tape for roads and blue construction paper as water.
Each school created its own model city. A typical display filled the space of about three dinner tables.
The models showed whatever the children thought belonged in a city: people, cars, hospitals, police and fire departments and even schools.
So the franchise businesses that dominate real cities also command the more modest skylines in the box cities of elementary students. Many of the cities included a McDonald’s, a Subway and even a Toys R Us store.
Monona Terrace coordinator Angie Roloff said the event was sponsored by the facility and has taken place every other year since 2000. Roloff was happy with the turnout this year, as the event has grown from 600 students two years ago.
This year’s model cities incorporate many types of places in Madison that young students are familiar with, such as churches and restaurants.
“I like Madison because it has a lot of active people and places to go . . . just like our city,” Toni, the Falk third- grader, said.
Sandra Swenson toured the cities Friday with her son, Jack, who is also a Falk third-grader.
She said Jack often came home from school talking about his buildings, which involved professional architects working with the students.
Architect helps Architect Erin Detwiler from Engberg Anderson Design Partnership, said students have been working since November. Detwiler visited Hawthorne Elementary School twice a week to talk about her job, and help the students design their buildings.
“The kids became very excited when they actually started building and painting,” Detwiler said. “It has been great to see what they’ve created.”
Mark Wagler’s class at Randall Elementary School took a different approach to creating an ideal city. The 25 Randall students built a city of the past. Wagler’s students worked to re-create the historic Greenbush area of 1960, several years before many of its buildings were razed.
“We have blueprints and photographs of existing and nonexisting buildings,” Wagler said. “So many kids tried to get every window, every porch and every detail.”
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, local city planners, architects, and teachers involved in the project were present Friday morning to acknowledge the students’ work with a ribbon cutting ceremony.
The public is invited to take a tour of Terrace Town today from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
“This has been the greatest thing,” said Deb Konkol, third- grade teacher at Eastside Elementary.
“The students have learned so much — it is not just a town they built.” If you go
What : Terrace Town 2006, a display of model cities built by children.
Where : Monona Terrace
When : 10 a.m to 4 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free.
Who : Students from the following elementary schools participated: Eastside (Sun Prairie), Falk, Gompers, Hawthorne, Kennedy, Lincoln, Randall, Sandburg, Thoreau, and Sauk Trails (Middleton).
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Wisconsin State Journal
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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