An educational game about urban planning · ages 10 to 11 (grades 4 and 5), 45 minutes · groups of 3 to 4 children · starosta.alho.cz
Children build a town on a 7×5 board: they place buildings (houses, flats, a kindergarten, a school, a clinic, a retirement home, playgrounds, a water treatment plant…) on empty plots. Every building has "wishes" and "dislikes" based on real urban-planning rules. When the town is finished, the game scores it (0 to 100 points, a title from Bricklayer to City Architect) and explains every rule in a single sentence.
Citizenship Geography People and place
The town and its parts, the surrounding landscape, jobs and services, why communities have rules, care for the environment. Cross-cutting themes: environmental education (people and their surroundings) and democratic citizenship (the town as a community, decision-making). Develops problem-solving, communication and collaboration (group work, giving reasons). The game was built for the Czech national curriculum and maps easily onto civics, geography and social-studies units elsewhere.
| Time | Phase | What the teacher and the children do |
|---|---|---|
| 0–5 | A question for the class | "What does a town need so that life in it is good?" Ideas go on the board (housing, a school, a shop, a doctor, a playground, water, heat…). Then add: "And does it matter WHERE each thing stands?" Let the children guess: a kindergarten next to a motorway, a treatment plant on the town square. |
| 5–10 | Demo on the projector | Open starosta.alho.cz/app/?lang=en → "How to play?" (a guided tutorial of 3 moves: flats, kindergarten, treatment plant). Show a building card: a green tick = wants nearby, a red cross = doesn't want. Explain steps (straight, not diagonal) and neighbourhood (the 8 squares around). |
| 10–30 | Groups build | Every group plays Pond / No task / Easy. One rule: before placing a building, say out loud WHY it goes there. Don't advise; when asked, just read the card. Groups that finish early: score the town, read the breakdown, then try to improve it ("New game" and again, or tap a building twice to move it). |
| 30–40 | Scoring together | Groups take turns showing their result (or they dictate it and you click it in on the projector). For each, read one sentence from the breakdown aloud and ask the class: "Do you agree? Why shouldn't the kindergarten stand by the main road?" The children write their points and title into the worksheet. |
| 40–45 | Reflection | "Which rule surprised you?" "Does it hold where you live: how far is your school, where is the treatment plant?" Optional homework: play at home with parents and bring your best result (QR cards). |
| Variant | When and why |
|---|---|
| Harder with a budget | 20 buildings for 10 plots and a budget of 200 million (prices on the cards): children must choose what the town needs most, and count. Maths (staying within a budget) plus civics (a town's priorities). Ages 11 to 13. |
| Fix the town | The town is already built, but badly: 5 moves to shift buildings around. Teaches finding mistakes in a finished solution and justifying a change. One hundred points = the best possible fix in 5 moves. Works as a quick 15-minute activity. |
| Green town (Harder only) | Double penalties for utilities and points for plots left green: a discussion of "build, or keep the green space?". |
| Maps Castle, River, Station, Hill, Big city | A heritage zone, the direction of the river's flow (treatment plant downstream), noise by the tracks. Big city (9×6) is a longer game for a double lesson or a project day. |
| Exploring your own town | After the game: find the school, kindergarten, treatment plant, heating plant and playgrounds on a map of your town; measure the distances from home; compare with the rules from the game. Who plans your town? (the local plan, the council, the city architect). |
Group: Class: Date:
Write or draw the three things you think a town needs most.
Before you place a building, agree as a group and write the reason in one sentence.
| Building | Where we put it (plot number) | Why exactly there? |
|---|---|---|
| 🧸 Kindergarten | ||
| 💧 Water treatment plant | ||
| 🌷 Retirement home | ||
| 🏢 Large apartment block | ||
| 🏠 Family house |
Our town scored points out of 100 and earned the title .
Which mistake cost us the most points? What would we do differently next time?
My school is about minutes' walk from my home. I know where our town's treatment plant / heating plant is. I know who decides what gets built where in our town.
Which rule from the game surprised me, and why?
| Building | Where it belongs | Why (and what the game says) |
|---|---|---|
| 🧸 Kindergarten | within 2 steps of housing, not by the main road, not next to utilities | The standard for kindergarten access is about 400 m from housing (1 square ≈ 200 m). By the main road there is noise and danger; next to a chimney or tanks it is unhealthy. |
| 💧 Treatment plant | by the water, more than 2 steps from housing, not by the square or the castle; on the River map, downstream | It returns cleaned water to the stream; kept apart from homes because of the smell; downstream, the town does not dirty its own water. |
| 🌷 Retirement home | by the greenery, a clinic within 2 steps, not by the heating plant or the sports field | Quiet, a park for walks and health care within reach: exactly how such homes are really placed. A bonus next to the kindergarten (generations meet). |
| 🏢 Large apartment block | by a street, kindergarten and playground within 2 steps, not right next to a family house | Many people = good transport connections and services nearby. Between a house and a large block belongs a smaller building as a height transition. |
| 🏠 Family house | by the greenery, next to other houses, not next to a large block | Houses form a friendly neighbourhood; a garden and greenery over the fence; a large block right next door shades it and brings traffic. |
| 🏫 Primary school | within 3 steps of housing, a playground next door, not by the main road | The walking distance for schools is longer than for kindergartens (about 600 to 800 m); a safe walk to school. |
| 🏭 Heating plant | close to the flats (within 3 steps), by a road, but not right next to housing and not by the castle | Short heat pipes save energy, but the chimney belongs neither under the windows nor in a landmark's skyline. |