TAG students team up to establish new cities
BY JOHN DUNPHY
Staff Writer

JOHN DUNPHY Oceanside Town, a fictional city created by members of the Upper Elementary School’s Talented and Gifted (TAG) program, won first place in the “Create a City” project.

SAYREVILLE — What would your city look like if it were built by children?

Eleven teams of fourth- and fifth-grade students in the Talented and Gifted (TAG) program at the Upper Elementary School (UES), Ernston Road, sought to answer that question when they participated in the “Create a City” project, six months of activities that culminated in an awards ceremony for the top three projects on April 26 at the school.

JOHN DUNPHY A Florida-inspired beachfront, complete with sand, surf and lighthouse, borders one side of Oceanside Town, the first-place winner in the Upper Elementary School Talented and Gifted (TAG) program’s “Create a City” project.

The project saw teams working together as leaders of their very own imaginary cities. They were the architects, planners and contractors, according to Grace Gabriele, teacher for the TAG program at the UES.

“It was really exciting for me,” she said of the project, which involved several local public figures as judges, including Mayor Kennedy O’Brien, engineer David Samuels, Interim Superintendent of Schools Frank Alfano and Assistant Superintendent of Schools Carla Sutherland.

Green Oaks, Pa., a fictional town took second place in the “Create a City” project.

The project began with the 108 TAG participants taking an imaginary trip to city hall last October. From there, the children learned about various workings of a city, including its sanitation and police and fire departments, as well as how things worked at the library and city hall.

The children researched cities and towns in the United States and used the information they gathered to create their own. The children were also asked to create a personal history for their cities, which included a famous fictional person from that place.

Oceanside Town, the project that took first place, was based in Florida and featured a fictional professional surfer named Jason Vango as their local legend.

Gabriele said all of the projects’ locations were based in either Florida or California, except Green Oaks, Pa., the fictional home of legendary Mayor Joseph Green, which took second place.

It was the subtle details, Gabriele said, that set the three winning entrees, including third-place McFarrelsburg, apart from the rest. The park in Oceanside Town paid extra attention to the landscape, while a helipad was located atop the hospital in Green Oaks, for example.

“These are things you don’t realize 10-year-olds are thinking about,” she said. “Even the signs, the drug-free school zones. These are things they realized exist in the real world.”

“I could tell the strong teams by how they met in class,” Gabriele added. “In the last couple of weeks, many of them would give up part of their recess to put in some finishing touches.”

Sutherland, who was a TAG teacher at Sayreville War Memorial High School for 13 years, said she was impressed with the number of variables the children had to deal with, and what they were to be judged on.

“It was really quite extraordinary,” she said. “The creative use of common materials was very impressive. [The children] adopted common household items to become parts of scenery, buildings or facilities.”

Sutherland said projects such as “Create a City” are integral to the cooperative learning skills of children.

“These types of structured activities really need to start at the UES-age level so it becomes natural for the kids to engage in cooperative programs,” she said. “If we don’t work on the cooperative learning skills, all of their attributes may never come to the fore because they can’t share them with other individuals.”

Overall, the children themselves said they got a lot of learning out of the project.

“It taught us about commitment and using our imaginations,” said fourth-grader Nancy Wang.

“I learned that not everyone will like the same things, and you have to accept that,” said fifth-grader Kristen Fitzsimmons.

For their efforts, the winning teams will receive a tour of Sayreville Borough Hall by Mayor O’Brien in June. All 11 teams that participated were awarded certificates of achievement as well as their very own hard hats.

“I was quite impressed with the end results,” Gabriele said. “They all came up with some really interesting names and stories, they learned how to cooperate and compromise, and most of all, they were committed to each other.”

She said the students tended well to their responsibilities of creating cities that years from now, could prove to be the early blueprints for the real things.

“The ‘TAG City’ project was a great experience,” said fourth-grader Alaisha Verdeflor. “Many of us will grow up to become architects.”