The Blue Road

Ages 6-9

Yudi draws a small square beside his friend's chalk town.

His friend hands him a piece of blue chalk.

"Make another house. Like that one."

Yudi copies the sloping roof. Then the little window.

His friend adds a tall tower to the middle of the town.

Yudi reaches toward it with his chalk.

"Not there," his friend says. "Another house here."

Yudi draws half a roof. He puts down the chalk.

Between the two houses and the town is an empty patch of pavement. No road reaches across it.

Yudi picks up the blue chalk again.

"Can I make the road?"

His friend looks at the gap.

"To this corner."

He points beside the tower.

Yudi starts at his little house. The road bends across the gap and reaches the corner.

At the tower, it is too wide. Yudi rubs away one edge with his shoe and draws it narrower.

His friend adds a door beside the road.

Yudi puts a second path around his unfinished house. He leaves its half roof alone.

The tall tower stays in the middle. From Yudi's little square, a blue road runs all the way to its new door.