Neighborhood as Habitat Investigation
/The 2018-2019 school year’s investigation centered around the themes of community, environmentalism, and the local neighborhood and its habitats and inhabitants that emerged in all three classrooms. In each, according to the age and interests of the kids, the focus was a bit different. In the Green Room (2s), an interest in cooking early on in the year inspired restaurant play that eventually culminated in making pizza for the school community, focusing along the way on where our food in this neighborhood comes from, what is grown, and asking how our food choices impact our environment. The Purple Room (3s) considered the relationships between humans and animals within the city and the relationships to the domestic, wild, and captive animals we share space with. The Blue Room (pre-k) studied the local waterfront as a habitat for humans and creatures, considering how systems built to meet human needs, like transportation and housing, have affected the other living things in this neighborhood and in the coastal water. The connections this year were both thematic and material: each class also constructed part of a model neighborhood that illustrated the connections among living things in and around the Columbia Waterfront.
