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Salvadori is a program that shows students how art, design, math and science are embedded in the buildings, bridges and landmarks of the city. I do the project as an extension of a social studies unit on China with my 3rd-grade gifted and talented class.

We visit a small triangle park on Montgomery and East Broadway that sits at the edge of Chinatown where it meets the Lower East Side. Then we redesign it with an Asian theme. We learn about Asian architecture. We visit the edges of Chinatown and notice how the signs change. We measure the park and learn about scale, materials and design elements. In class, the students make pagodas with card stock and construction paper. Once they have done that, we redesign the whole park, using pebbles, contact paper, all sorts of materials the students choose. All of which, of course, adds up. We need glue guns, metallic papers, glitter, sand, paints, magic markers, card stock, pebbles!

I use Teacher’s Choice and ask parents to contribute $5 for all projects for the year. Then I fund whatever else needs to be bought.