Fleisher: Neighborhood Mapping Project

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Neighborhood Mapping Project

Fourth Grade

Teaching Artists: Bill Adair, John Giordano, Karen Malandra and Ralph Brancaccio

Developed in collaboration with the Rosenbach Museum and Library, this interdisciplinary project introduced students to the art of mapmaking while fostering visual awareness of the urban environment. Through intensive investigations of their neighborhood, children at Meredith and Greenfield Elementary Schools learned about the visible and invisible elements that make up a community, from its architecture and flora, to its utility and water systems. They did rubbings of manhole covers, drew pictures of area plants and trees, and studied maps showing how water travels underground from a street storm drain to the Schuylkill River. As a culmination of the project, they made a comprehensive watercolor map of their neighborhood. In Spring 2001, the drawings and journal entries of the 4th grade class from Greenfield Elementary School was made into a professionally printed and reproduced document of the project. Copies of the document are available for the school community and surrounding neighborhood.

Image: Neighborhood Mapping Project, Watercolor Maps, Greenfield Elementary

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