Creating Toy Town

Loosely following the lesson plans from Ann Baker, my students made "Toy Town". They began by making a house for a teddy bear and we progressed to constructing a little town for the rest of our toys. We first brainstormed what types of buildings would be found in a neighbourhood and went from there. You can find the lesson plan in the Ann Baker Natural Maths Strategies: Beginner Level 4-5 Years.

The photos below show the town they made.

Then following another idea from Ann Baker's books, we decided we would draw a map of our Toytown. Mapping was something that was totally new to my students and we will continue with this learning over the year. 

I decided to begin the task, we would make the map together. I put the photo up on the board and we traced around the parts of the map with a whiteboard marker. 

We then turned the projector off and were left with an outline, which the students copied.