Creative Minds Construct Playgrounds Out of Junk
October 21st 2022
FWCD third graders engaged their imaginative minds working with ordinary recyclables and used items at the Junkyard Wonders event on October 7. Students were tasked with creating a playground. Each group consisted of four students, one from each third grade class, and they worked together to generate a design, then used the items collected to make their playground come to life.
This project was a culminating project to the students’ study of Patricia Polacco’s literary works. In The Junkyard Wonders, Polacco gives the reader an intimate look into her childhood as a struggling student in a “special class” in elementary school. Labeled as a junkyard kid, Polacco and her friends discover the endless possibilities that lie in making unique creations out of ordinary things. The junkyard becomes a beautiful and exciting place, and the junkyard kids become wonders.
FWCD’s third grade students “built” their playgrounds out of supplies such as egg cartons, boxes, milk cartons, string, bottle caps, cups … just about anything under the sun! Kelly Lanier Tierce ’93 first started this project in 2014; this year, it was sponsored by the third grade team: Meredith Hudgens Cunningham ’04, Heather Goldman, Katy Thompson Hobbs ’97 and Shelby Johnson.
FWCD’s third grade students “built” their playgrounds out of supplies such as egg cartons, boxes, milk cartons, string, bottle caps, cups … just about anything under the sun! Kelly Lanier Tierce ’93 first started this project in 2014; this year, it was sponsored by the third grade team: Meredith Hudgens Cunningham ’04, Heather Goldman, Katy Thompson Hobbs ’97 and Shelby Johnson.
The teachers choose the topic every year and said this project helps students learn how to work in groups and create something as a team. View the slideshow of the creations.
