The Living Map Project

The Living Map Project

Pierre Elliott Trudeau Elementary School (PETES)

Lisa Howell

In 2013, Students in Ms. Howell’s Elementary Cycle 3 class decided to build cultural bridges and connect the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Elementary School (PETES) community with the diverse community that surrounds them. The student population largely comes from areas out of the immediate vicinity, which means that students do not have many links to the surroundings.

"Our Living Map: Voices from our community" project is an inter-generational, intercultural, artistic and linguistic endeavour that  builds relationships with neighbours and connect with the larger community. By building stronger connections, there is a hope that misunderstandings or incidents of vandalism of school property will be less prevalent.  

The students met and heard the stories of their neighbours: the Larsh Home for adults with intellectual disabilities down the street; the Portuguese Church around the corner; a community centre that serves the needs of families that live in the social housing project that borders the school grounds and the neighbours who live across the street who know the stories of our schools history.

The end result was a living 3D sculptural map as well as a book that features the writing and photography works of student’s interactions with the members of the community. You can download a document the class produced here.

You can read more about the project by clicking here.

Ms. Howell has a great website which features many of her class projects. It's well worth a visit - http://room224.yolasite.com/