We began reading The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs by Betty Birney at the end of October.  Eben lives in a pretty ordinary town in the middle of Missouri.  He wants to see the world and explore wonders more than anything.  His pa says that if he can find seven Wonders in Sassafras Spring in seven days, he’ll send him on a train all the way to the snowy mountains of Colorado to visit his cousin.  Eben can’t believe his ears.  He’s also not sure what there is to find in his little town – but he decides to try and with pencil and tablet in his overalls pocket he set off down Yellow Dog Road to discover what Wonders might possibly await him.

Once we finished reading we decided that we would create our own three dimensional map of Sassafras Springs.  We knew we’d need a sign and labels.  We thought we could add a compass rose and our people and buildings would be the symbols on the map.  At the end of November we each drew out the name of the building we would build and the person we would create.  We collected our supplies and began…

We designed and built our homes, community buildings and businesses.

We created a layout of the roads, the creek and the ridge.  We decided how we would place the buildings and hoped they would fit.

We made our characters.  It’s not easy to turn a clothespin into a person even though Aunt Pretty had that as a hobby.

When most of the buildings and characters were created we checked to see if our plan would work.  When we  knew it would we added labels and created the sign that would title our map.

Lastly we added the finishing touches that make the town uniquely Sassafras Springs, Missouri.  We’ve got a bit more to complete, but we’ll be finished in a day or two.

Let us know what you think.  Better yet, stop by our room so you can see all the details.