Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Welcome to Hockey Haven

My son, Robert's, definition of Utopia can be seen in his latest project. He has been reading the book, The Giver, in his Language Arts class and he was assigned a project where he was suppose to create a map of a community which represents Utopia. His Utopia...a community based on Hockey (go figure).
Using a foam core board as the base, and blocks of wood as buildings his community was created. There several neighborhoods of houses - in the center of each neighborhood was their ice rink. A central city hall right in the middle of the town, had the residential area on one side and main street (with shops, a hotel and a grocery store) on the other. Robert's utopia not only centered on the sport of hockey (something that was part of your education at school), but it was also a very healthy, eco-friendly environment. There were no cars; the town was small enough that you could walk, bike, xcountry ski or shoe shoe where ever you needed to go. Also smoking was outlawed. It was also a community which supported an active and healthy lifestyle - sporting equipment was not taxed, but junk food was. To help keep waste down, all homework was done on laptops (which were supplied to every child by the school) - therefore no papers and no books.

It is a very interesting concept! He did a great job with the map and sounds like he is ready for the presentation he will have to give at school. It is fun to be able to do these projects with the kids. I enjoy that time with them.

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