A young person's Green Map is essentially a neighborhood version of our larger citywide maps. For a variety of reasons, including concerns about frightening smaller children, some educators are choosing to omit the environmental problems. Instead, they focus on the positive green sites and other hopeful signs of health and growth in the community.
Some Maps use more than one Icon to define a single green site.
The important thing is to get kids to talk and write about what they have investigated and seen in their neighborhood. GMS is very flexible and open to the involvement of all kinds of people as Mapmakers, as explained in the How to Participate and Youth Mapmakers sections. We encourage everyone who is creating a Green Map to register with GMS, even if they obtained GMS's Icon font and toolkit from a friend. GMS is first and foremost about collaborative, reciprocal communications tool. In addition to Green Maps, our kids site has stories about successful mapmaking initiatives, digital pictures of kids in the process of making Green Maps, links to other important environmental education sites, and more.