Cardboard boxes, toilet paper rolls, Blue Tack, toothpicks, and sellotape - would you believe that these items could be used to construct a city? Well, seal class pupils have been doing just that in their recent Science lessons!

Before the holiday, pupils in seal class had been learning about cities in their English lessons. What places can be found in a city? What is needed to make a city operate successfully? How do architects plan and construct cities? So, for Science, we decided to answer that final question on a smaller scale by building a model city.

The pupils began by watching time-lapse videos of buildings being constructed. They watched as some of the most famous buildings in the world rose up from the ground and into the sky. After observing this process, the pupils worked together to explain the process of building construction. To my surprise, they were just about spot-on! Here’s what the pupils determined:

1. 1. Draw up a blueprint – a detailed plan of what the building will look like.
2. 2. Flatten the ground of the construction site – you can’t build on bumpy ground!
3. 3. Build the foundation – a strong metal and concrete structure that keeps the base of the building strong.
4. 4. Build the frame of the building level by level, higher and higher.
5. 5. Strengthen the frame with steel, concrete, and other strong materials.
6. 6. Build the exterior of the building – the walls, windows, and decorations come last.

With these six steps in mind, the pupils began to build. Hundreds of toothpicks, dozens of metres of tape, several boxes of Blue-Tack, and two lessons later, the pupils finished building their frames. Through this process, these young architects have gained a much better understanding of basic architecture. There were times that pupils’ buildings would fall over, but they wouldn’t give up – they continued experimenting with different techniques until they were successful. Next week, they will complete the final step – decorating the exteriors of the buildings!