Sunday, May 20, 2012

Envision: Chicago Neighborhood Dioramas

Our Fourth graders at Belmont-Cragin have been working on a long term Social Studies collaboration throughout this school year involving the study of the history of inventions along with architecture of the Midwest. In addition, we have been investigating how the rise of industrialization has effected people's lives. Last September, we took a walking tour of the loop guided by the Chicago Architecture Foundation. The students took many photos. During the school year, we engaged in research and short-term projects to learn more about the formation of Chicago as a place.

For our culminating project, students worked in teams of four, to research, plan, and construct a 3-D neighborhood or event in Chicago - either past or present. Students used a variety of materials including recycled food product boxes, cardboard, pipe cleaners, corks, popsicle sticks and other ordinary objects to build their structures into their folded tri-fold presentation board.

Following are several examples using the Habits of MInd: Envision and Engage & Persist:
Model of Chicago at the Chicago Architecture Foundation


Gathering materials to build a model of the Loop

The buildings begin to emerge and the El structure takes shape

Envision: The team wasn't happy with the El track structure an decided to tear them down and begin again.
View of final diorama - looking east on Wabash Avenue between Jackson and Monroe (with artistic license)

Engage and Persist: Comments by student with teacher feedback.

2 comments:

  1. Nice rubric ;). I really like this idea as a lesson. I've been integrating my curriculum with the Social Studies curriculum as well. I once did a unit on Chicago neighborhoods using paper bags. I love the amount of understanding the art world and collaboration involved in this project.

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