City Government for Kids

ABC – What is a City?


A city is a place where you live, work, go to school and play. A city is a place where you carry on your day-to-day life. Some cities are also called towns or villages.

Cities are communities that may be made up of several neighborhoods. A city is a municipal government created by the citizens through legislative special act and established through adoption of a charter.

A city government provides services to its citizens and sets up rules and regulations, called ordinances, that allow us to have a beautiful, safe and healthy place to live.

The central building from which these services are offered and rules are made is called city hall. The people working at city hall provide us with many services like clean water, garbage collection, playgrounds, streets, lights, and police and fire protection.

Nearly half of the population of Grand Forks lives in a municipality. Cities vary in size, but each one is a true example of democracy in action at the level closest to the citizen.

Student Activities

2nd Grade
* Students, using mapping skills, can research a city’s boundaries and where specific city operations are located.
* Students can design posters, booklets, or multimedia presentations about the services that they use in their city.

3rd Grade
*Students can research the history of the development of their city government. They can look at pictures of the city from different periods to see how it has changed over time. They can build models or designs of their own city. These visuals can be shared with lower primary grades during their studies.

4th Grade
*Students can research the differences of cities during Colonial times and compare with current practices. Field trips to various city-run services can be very useful. Resource people from city service departments are excellent sources of information and for classroom speakers.
*Using the Internet, students can investigate the home pages of various North Dakota municipalities, looking for such information as department structure, services provided, elected officials and city history.

5th Grade
*Students can do interviews with city department personnel about the specific functions of the departments. Presentations can be made to their own class and at other grade levels.
*Students can write reports or keep journals about what they have found that makes up a city.
* A sister-school program would allow students to write to students in other states or countries to find out about their life and their city governments. In addition to writing letters, they could send pictures from local newspapers/magazines that depict life in their communities, comparing and contrasting their city with other cities.

Student Questions:
1. What is a city? What is a citizen?

2. Why is it important to learn about city government?

3. New cities may be created at any time. How many cities make up the State of North Dakota today?

4. Name and describe the services provided to citizens through city hall?

5. Where do citizens go to inquire about city services?






City of Grand Forks
255 N 4th Street * Grand Forks, ND 58203 * Phone (701) 746-INFO