KDH have a special visitor yesterday. Mr. Karl Smith, a city planner for Midtown Atlanta and Ms. Jenny 's husband, honored our request to come in and make a presentation to the children.
Mr. Karl introduced himself and talked to the children about his education and career path. He is both an architect and city planner. Mr. Karl told the children that planners think about what the city will look like in the future. Gabi defined the future as what will be when they get older. Mr. Karl explained that he plans for what may be next year or even twenty years down the road. Shayan told us that his father does construction. We discussed how builders use the architects' drawings to guide them. Harper told us that when their house was built her father painted the inside purple because that is her favorite color.
Mr. Karl and Ms. Jenny distributed miniature buildings, one to each child.There were houses, apartment buildings, tall office buildings, stores, an airport, and even a shul. Each child put his/her building on the middle of the carpet without a plan.
Mr. Karl asked the children to look at what they had assembled and think about it. Were the buildings too close to each other? Was there room for streets for walking? Were there parks? How would people have access to the tops of buildngs especially the ones that were placed on top of another building!
Then, we were shown the large maps that Mr. Karl had brought in. We saw how streets are drawn on a map in colors according to how important they are. We viewed where on the map there may be some development.
We discussed what the children would like and need in a city. A zoo was mentioned, trees and grass, dentists and doctors, and parks for running.
The class walked quickly across the room to the block area to put their thoughts onto paper and build their cities.
We hung up their designs in the block center and are watching to see how these ideas unfold!
Thank you Mr. Karl and Ms. Jenny for an interesting and informative lesson!
Morah Ruth
Morah Yael
Morah Gail
