Sunday, August 17, 2008


One afternoon a week our second grade class went to Mrs. Evans room for current events with the Weekly Reader newspaper. Each of us would get our very own copy. We were always impressed because it made us feel like grown-ups since our parents read their newspapers.
"Come in class and take your seat," Mrs. Evans said. "don't forget to pick up your Weekly Reader as you go by the reading table." Once we were settled, Mrs. Evans had different children read some of the many articles from the newspaper. Then we discussed several of them with her for a short time.
"All right class, I'd like you to do the quiz on the back page. When you're done, place them on my desk." Occasionally she assigned a one-page story to write from the newspaper.
As much as we enjoyed the Weekly Reader session, the brightest spot for my sister and me was getting to work on the Lego Town. We were always excited when she'd tell us we could go to the other side of the room. This never occurred, though, until we had finished our assignments.
Sitting on sawhorses was a huge board that held about a zillion red, white, blue, black, yellow, and clear Lego pieces that were lying about. We would stand and stare at the board trying to decide what we could make that would add to the town.
"Cinny, what do you want to build?" I asked.
"How about let's build a house this time? she responded.
The possibilities were endless. We could add to the buildings already being built, make cars, swings for the parks, people, or anything we imagined. We build everything from skyscrapers to regular houses. They were beautiful to our eyes. Sometimes we simply put the pieces in place and made new roads that led to the neighborhoods. They were made with red Lego's because they looked the most like bricks. We worked together so our project would be completed before it was time to go.
One thing we always had to remember was that Mrs. Evans didn't allow any fighting at Lego Town. She would make you go back to your desk and you'd be done for the day, no exceptions. Nobody wanted to lose the time spent in Lego Town.
Mrs. Evans class was a place filled with excitement. Not only did we learn about other people and places from our newspaper, we also got to use our imagination to become builders of a town - our very own Lego Town.

Jenny is the author