Building a Town or City: Connecting Math, Science, and Social Studies in Grades 1-2
April 21, 2026
Excursions are freely available sequences of related activities that encourage students to apply the mathematics they are learning to their own and others’ lives and communities. They were developed by the Forum for Equity in Elementary Mathematics to foster authentic connections between the mathematics students are learning in school and their experiences at home and in their communities. This blog illustrates the principles of Excursions, laid out in the introductory blog, in the context of a specific Excursion. It is the third in a series that will share the experience and work of field test teachers and students engaging in each of the published Excursions.
The community a young child lives in and the buildings that are a part of it can be an important part of students’ lives and is ripe for mathematical connections to geometry. In the Building a Town or City Excursion, 1st and 2nd graders learn about the work of architects, find out what their families consider to be important buildings in a community, and design and construct buildings out of blocks to create a town or city. This work involves representing 3-D shapes in two dimensions, building a 3-D structure from a 2-D representation, and describing and comparing defining attributes of 3-D shapes – all important geometric ideas.
Reading a children’s book about an architect is a powerful way to engage students in thinking about the work of designing and constructing buildings, particularly when the book connected to students’ lives or gives them a window into the lives of others. (A varied list of suggested titles is provided.)
“The first thing I did was read the Gaudí book with my kids. We talked about Spain and what language they speak because over half my class speak Spanish at home or their parents speak Spanish. So it was nice to have that connection of, ‘Oh, this is someone who speaks my language.’ They were really interested in the text and the illustrations.” – Sarah, Field Test Teacher
“The text that we used was their highlight. Because we were in a biography unit, they already had ideas about change makers and people who have made a difference, people who had to overcome a struggle. And so when we read about Zaha, the kids were like, ‘Oh, she’s amazing,’ ‘They didn’t want her to work for them just because she’s a girl and that’s terrible.’ The students had so many big feelings, and that made the Excursion more meaningful to them.” – Sabrina, Field Test Teacher
Tackling the larger project – designing and building a town or city of their own – involves students in thinking about what it’s important for a community to have. In field test classrooms this provided opportunities to discuss needs versus wants, and goods and services, topics that were a part of the social studies curricula. Students drew on these conversations, and what they learned from asking their families the same questions, as they decided what was important for their town or city to have. These discussions brought important aspects of their own community into the classroom.
“I think they had good conversations at home and that got them thinking, what is important and what are things I need, that my family and I use in our community? “We go to grocery stores, we go to libraries.” Even the coffee place that W. came up with, the dad wrote on there, “Parents need coffee.” So you could almost see the conversation at home.– Kara, Field Test Teacher
“We had two churches in our town. One was for people who speak Spanish and one was a Moldovan church. And I loved it because the students who designed those buildings, I had two Latinx girls who worked together and a Moldovan student who asked her partner to help her make a Moldovan church. And what I love is, when they were sharing their buildings, they were talking about the building they made and what they chose and why.” – Sarah, Field Test Teacher
As students designed their building, they thought about which shapes to use, which shapes went together, and how those shapes combined to make the structure they desired. Making a sketch of the building required representing 3-D shapes on a 2-D piece of paper. Recreating the building on the class map required using a 2-D sketch to construct a 3-D building.
Field test teachers found that the work of designing and constructing a 3-D structure and drawing it on a 2-D piece of paper – and vice versa – raised up students who didn’t think of themselves as “good at math” and gave others the opportunity to see and admire their mathematical strengths. Students also learned more about each others’ interests and experiences, and that knowledge led the class to go deeper with the mathematics.
“The class knew J., a student with autism, had some special interests and strengths. But they saw him become a superstar with what he shared with the class. He was connecting to his interests about buildings and monuments throughout the world and it made them think a little bit more about places they’ve traveled, they’ve seen. And they started saying things like, ‘Oh, do you know what I saw this weekend? I saw a tower.’ They brought in more drawings of buildings in their neighborhood and were saying ‘Oh, I did this and look how I drew it. I was able to draw this building!’” – Kara, Field Test Teacher
Thinking back on the Excursion as a whole, Kara reflected:
“I found this excursion really engaging for myself and the students. We do geometry, but connecting it to their family and community was really nice because the curriculum’s not doing that. So having this time to really stop and think, and to look at different architects, to look at different people who may be similar to them or connected to their family and their parents’ jobs or to somewhere they’ve traveled or heard about, that was really cool. That was really fun for my teaching.”
What we heard from teachers who field tested the Buildings Excursion, and other Excursions across the grades, echoed the goals laid out in the introductory blog. The mathematics was accessible, deep, and rich. Students were more engaged and exhibited persistence. More children contributed to whole class discussions, expanding the voices heard in the classroom. Teachers learned more about students and their families, and students learned more about each other. Look for future blogs, which will take up these same themes in the context of other Excursions.
Resources
Katz, S. B., & Schwalbe, L. (2022). Gaudi: Architect of Imagination. NorthSouth.
Tentler-Krylov, V. (2020). Building Zaha: The Story of Architect Zaha Hadid. Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.