One of the activities in the Downstream/Upstream project is to get kids to retell the story of their water journey using their own words and pictures. Each child will create a water story book of their explorations and trips on the learning module in parks, at manholes, on the river boat ride... The idea is to use kid-friendly cameras, story prompting, and drawing/coloring to draw out what each child found interesting at each location.
In addition to each child’s book, a map-based community book, from the whole classroom will be created. The beginning of this book, called Downstream/Upstream Mapstories, was presented at the Living Green Expo Art Exhibit May 7-8. As illustrated below, the community book is a wall map made of “tiles.” Each tile is an area of the city, whose cover can be lifted up to reveal more about that place. A few starting images were shown at the Art Exhibit to give the idea, but once the project is complete, the children’s images will create thicker books beneath the path of their water journey. In addition to recording stories, the wall map will be used to chart the journey and share it with the parents and other classes.
Depending on funding, the cameras from this project will become part of a nature appreciation class kit for a nature center or similar program.
