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Imagine learning a lesson about the wonders of nature as you’re learning a new language!

The second graders in Olivia Grecco’s class at Albany International Academy’s Newcomer Program did exactly that on Thursday thanks to our community partners at Five Rivers Environmental Education Center and their program called “Nature in the City.”

The students speak either Arabic, Farsi, Swahili or Spanish at home. In Thursday’s lesson, the young naturalists learned how to estimate the age of a tree by counting its rings. They also used magnifying glasses to study the many properties of turkey feathers, leaves, Hudson River sand and flowers. And they finished the lesson examining models of small animal skulls.

After discussing and looking closely at each piece of nature, students drew pictures of the objects they studied in a nature journal.

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