| Welcome to Gold Canyon, Room 21's model classroom city! Gold Canyon sits in our second grade classroom at Duveneck School. We started the project on the first day of school and it has gotten bigger and bigger. As a teacher, Gold Ganyon helps me integrate writing, math, and art into our social studies curriculum. We learn about civics, government, and how to be a responsible member of a community. Also, it's lots of fun! Gold Canyon Government All of the kids in the class serve on the Gold Canyon City Council. We meet about twice a week and vote on all laws and budget items. The Council debates all issues before voting and Council members usually debate very vigorously. Any member of the Council can bring forth an idea for a building to build or a law to pass. I never vote or take a position at Council meetings, but I do report on the cost of potential budget items. I also give feedback on how the Council's decisions affect the city "in real life," in a newsletter I write each week called The City Crier. Other times, the City Crier reports on events to which the Council must respond. For instance, the Council had to decide what to do with a (fictitious) citizen who called the City Council "a bunch of yellow-bellied ninnies.” On another occasion, they had to decide what to do when arctic foxes, an endangered species, were found under a new business in town. Gold Canyon Businesses: All of the kids designed businesses that they wished to open and operate. They drew up business budgets, took out loans from the Gold Canyon Bank and then "built" the businesses in Kleenex boxes. You can see the business pages on this website. What the Kids Did in Making this Site: I am very proud of our class and their efforts in constructing this model city website. The kids wrote all of the text with the exception of the parts credited to myself. They also drew all the pictures and helped to take the digital photos. Using a hands-on website building program called Yahoo Sitebuilder allowed my second graders the unique chance to construct much of their business pages by themselves. With guided instruction from me and help from parents, the kids were able to choose fonts, colors, clipart and type in their descriptions. The kids did an awesome job! Many thanks to Ms. Gosney and her class and to the Duveneck community as a whole---it’s wonderful place to make learning come alive! You can see lots of other Gold Canyon activity on this site. Thanks for visiting our site! -Mr. B. |
| The City of Gold Canyon |
| A Note From Mr. B |
