We attended a webinar this past week and learned about a lot of really great initiatives for building child friendly cities and one of the tools that was talked about was a project called Block by Block where children use the Minecraft game to visualize and engage in neighborhood mapping. This initiative sparked an idea for us – I have two boys who are seven and ten who love to play Minecraft; so, I decided to start creating a lesson plan and test it out at home with my children.
They have begun to work together to map our neighborhood. We are starting by mapping the houses, parks, roads, greenspaces, etc.; once they finish this they will begin to engage in an activity where they will be asked to think about the spaces and identify areas that could be improved and to then create a child friendly and inclusive space that they think will improve the quality of life for our community.
It is a work in progress, but its a really fun activity and a great way to get kids engaged in community planning while doing something they love – like playing Minecraft!
Check back for updates on how we are progressing through this activity.
– Missy
c enns
I can imagine sponsors for this site 🙂 future job?
missycaswell
Wouldn’t that be something! My boys are having so much fun with this activity. I think the final product will be really cool 🙂