Project Overview

This book was created by 2^nd grade students from the Genesee Community Charter School in Rochester, New York as part of a three-month learning expedition on animals and habitats called, “A Walk Through Highland Park. 

Students spent a lot of time in their local park doing fieldwork making observations and doing copious amounts of writing. Students also worked with local experts to learn about the different ecosystems and habitats within the park. Outside experts included naturalists, park staff, and museum staff. Students also learned about animals from these ecosystems by caring for some of them in their classroom.

This guide is more of a vehicle for writing and thinking about natural areas than a field guide. Included in the book are photographs of students at each of the stops. Each student researched an animal and then wrote letters and poems about the animal from the point of view of that animal. The book is organized as “stops” along a nature walk. Although the writings do not exactly correspond to points on the map, they represent writing that students did while being in nature and making observations at those points.

The book was professionally produced in-house, using the school’s glue binding machine. This book, and many others like it, are available for purchase on the schools’ website.