Roxaboxen co-op

At co-op today, we read the book Roxaboxen.  It's based on a true story about some children in Arizona that built their own imaginary town out of boxes, pebbles, rocks, desert glass, etc.  They had a mayor, jail, ice cream shops, general store, etc. 

For our activity, the kids built their own Roxaboxen town out of boxes, jugs, blocks, etc.  Here is our before picture.

To start out the town, you have to build Main Street.

And of course, Main Street has to have a stop sign.

The boys started out building with a friend, way off Main Street away from the other kids.  I told them they needed to come closer to Main Street and Alex said they wanted to live in the country.

Later, the boys decided to split up and build their own houses.

Alex started out earning money in Roxaboxen by selling milk.  He sold out pretty quickly and had to be more creative.  He then sold imaginary horses and made quite a bit of money with that.

Nicolas had his own movie theater, but once everyone saw the "movie", his business slowed way down.

The boys ended up in a partnership and opened a restaurant.

One final look down Main Street before clean up time.

It was sad to have to clean it all up.  The kids in the book left theirs out all the time.  They lived in the desert, so their things were not destroyed by rain, snow, etc. 

For those that are wondering, we were "green" and recycled all the plastic and cardboard boxes.

When we got home, Nicolas used the boxes still in our garage to begin his new Roxaboxen town.  Alex joined him this morning, so now the "mess" is in my garage!