When Diane Seaver’s third grade class thought about what their Lego City community would need this past year, a school was one of their top priorities.

But when it came time for an election on the school budget, students voted down the plans when they learned the cost.

“We learned about school budget votes,” explained student Riley Willsey. “The first school budget was defeated. So we made the school smaller and then it passed.”

Each year, students in Ms. Seaver’s class create a Lego City as a way to engage students to learn about finance, government, and the needs of a community.

Before building their city with Legos, clay and other materials, students researched actual cities to see what to include. They settled on two cities - Richland and Seattle - with a volcano separating the two. Students chose a volcano after learning about Mount St. Helens in Washington.

Throughout the school year, students earned pretend money that they could use to purchase land in Lego City to build homes and then pay taxes. Students earned money by handing homework in on time or being kind to others. They had money taken away for late homework or if they were unkind to classmates.

“They used math to determine land values and filled out purchase orders,” Ms. Seaver explained. “They had to do it all on paper. No calculators.”

With land values at a premium, students had to decide what their communities needed versus what they wanted.

“We learned you can’t always get something you really want,” said Melissa Young.

Students chose things such as hospitals, banks, schools, grocery stores, farms and fire stations that were all important to a community.

“We read a book about gardens so we created a city garden,” explained Athenea Metcalf.

“We made a rock wall from clay and popsicle sticks and some rocks,” added Cassidy Galipeau. “We also have a pool with a slide, a bench, picnic tables and bumper cars.”

Students even studied laws of the United States and other countries to see what to include. They decided on a democratic republic form of government and created laws such as being kind to others and not showing off in class.

“My favorite part was building the middle section because we had to all work together,” said Luke Wagner.