If I Built a Town Activity Read Aloud STEM Challenge City Planning

Bring community planning to life with this hands-on If I Built a Town read-aloud STEM challenge.

Inspired by the book If I Built a Town by Chris Van Dusen, this elementary STEM lesson invites students to become town planners and engineers as they design an important place for a brand-new community.

Perfect for STEM, writing, social studies, and read-aloud extension activities, this low-prep lesson helps students think creatively about how places in a town help people live, work, and play.

What Students Do

• Imagine they are town planners designing a new community
• Choose one important place to add to the town and explain why it is needed
• Plan and sketch their idea before building or drawing it
• Work together to combine individual designs into one shared class town
• Reflect on how their place helps people learn, stay safe, have fun, get food, or protect nature

What’s Included

• Teacher instructions with materials, setup ideas, and implementation tips
• Vocabulary cards for terms like town planner, community, and public service
• Student challenge letter introducing the town design task
• Planning and sketch pages to help students organize their ideas
• Printable place cards for labeling student creations in the class town
• Writing pages for students to explain what they designed and how it helps the community
• Engineering Design Process posters and guiding questions
• Canva lesson slides link for easy whole-group instruction

This If I Built a Town STEM activity is a meaningful way to blend engineering, writing, and community studies while giving students the chance to design a town that truly helps the people who live there.

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