Little Architects Build Big Results

What do The White House, The Empire State Building, The Eiffel Tower, The Parthenon and the Great Pyramid of Giza have in common?

They are all made of LEGOS and sitting on a table at Rockland Country Day School in Congers. Built by kindergarten through fourth grade students, this exhibition’s home is filled with light from large windows at the entrance to the children’s school. The sculptures were achieved through ideas, creativity, science, patience and perseverance.

“We received a donation of about five huge boxes of LEGOS last year,” Cynthia Whitten said. Whitten is the advisor to the “LEGO Club” and a Kindergarten teacher at RCDS. After going through all the pieces, she decided to start a club.  First open to all students at the school, most interested students were the younger ones.

“The children spent one hour every Monday building and looking at photos of things to build,” she says. “We came up with themes, like space, and the kids worked for seven weeks and even during free time in the winter.” The LEGO Club consists of five teams with three to four students on each team.  One such student, Sabrina Lu, a kindergartener, asked if instead of a space theme, if she could build The White House. Her team collected hundreds of white LEGOS to build their mini replica. Sabrina said that building the house was “a little bit hard.” Near Valentine’s Day Sabrina sent a letter to President Obama. She included a drawing of her sculpture as well as a photograph. She also wished the President a Happy Valentine’s Day.

Rockland Country Day School

Rockland Country Day School was founded in 1959 and established by a group of community leaders whose standards reflected the era’s heightened concern with educational excellence. Led by Professor Charles Frankel of Columbia University, first president of the RCDS Board of Trustees, the group shared a common vision of formal schooling that was forward-looking and innovative, while grounded in the independent school tradition of challenging intellectual work, character development and preparation for leadership in our world.

At its founding, the School was situated in South Nyack. When it outgrew that site, the School moved to its present location, 20 acres of open and wooded land in Congers.

 Sabrina’s Wish

Sabrina and her teammates on the project, Esme Talenfeld and Morgan Minniefield, hope that President Obama will write the children a letter back. Cynthia Whitten is very proud of the children and hopes that The LEGO Club will be around for a long time.

 Rockland Country Day School 34 Kings Highway Congers, New York 10920

845-268-6802

http://www.rocklandcds.org