Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Scaling it Down: Caves Have Maps, Too

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Measurement and map skills are the focus of this lesson, where students crawl through a "cave" made out of boxes, desks and chairs, observing the dimensions.  Your young geographers measure various aspects of the cave and practice...
Lesson Plan
Public Schools of North Carolina

Democratic Republic of Congo - Map Skills

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Work on your map skills with a packet of activities about the river basins in the Democratic Republic on Congo. Learners study the maps provided before answering the geography questions and writing an acrostic poem about the region.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson 2 Activity 2: Mapping Mount St. Helens

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students use topographic map skills to interpret impact of the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens on the volcano's topography, and draw profile views of Mount St. Helens before and after the May 18, 1980, eruption.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Map Coordinates: Monkey Map

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Here's an engaging, meaningful, and clever lesson on map skills for elementary schoolers. Pupils combine story writing with mapping skills to create an original piece of work. They utilize a worksheet embedded in the plan to guide them...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What Do Maps Show?

For Teachers 6th - 8th
This teaching packet is for grades five through eight, and it is organized around geographic themes: location, place, relationships, movement, and regions. There are four full lessons that are complete with posters, weblinks, and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Map Skills

For Teachers 3rd
Thirds graders reinforce that a map is a drawing that shows what a place looks like from above. They use a map key and symbols to create a map of the school and its neighborhood.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Orienteering: Map Skills

For Teachers K - 4th
Students use a map to locate six specific landmarks on a course using a map. They identify how maps can help us and write a paragraph describing how to get from one landmark to another on the map.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Size It Up: Map Skills

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Compare information from a US population cartogram and a standard US map. Learners draw conclusions about population density by analyzing census data a population distribution. They discover that census data is used to apportion seats in...
Lesson Plan
Space Awareness

Let's Map the Earth

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Before maps went mobile, people actually had to learn how to read maps. Pupils look at map elements in order to understand how to read them and locate specific locations. Finally, young cartographers discover how to make aerial maps.
Lesson Plan
World Globes & Maps

United States Map- Intermediate Directions

For Teachers K - 3rd
Young scholars identify the four intermediate directions. For this map skills lesson, students use post-it notes to label the four intermediate directions on a map. Young scholars locate various states using intermediate directions.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Blank Jeopardy

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Games are a great way to motivate learners to internalize information.. Using this PowerPoint which is in a Jeopardy format, students can review map skills and facts about the Civil War, famous places, and our government. This is a handy...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Map Skills

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students create two types of maps.  In this map skills lesson, students discuss map vocabulary and view maps of Florida.  Students draw a free hand map of Florida and include major cities, bodies of water and land forms. ...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creating a Thematic Map

For Teachers 8th - 9th
Students create and analyze a weather-related data table and a thematic map based upon information provided.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Christopher Columbus: The Man, the Myth, the Legend

For Teachers K
Learn more about maps by examining Christopher Columbus's voyage to the New World. Kindergartners will learn about basic map skills and how to identify the compass rose, oceans, and land masses. They will also discover the purpose of...
Lesson Plan
Perkins School for the Blind

Beginning Map Skills

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Maps can be so much fun, they help you understand spatial relationships, distance between objects, and can foster direction skills. Budding cartographers with visual impairments use the Wheatley Tactile Diagramming Kit to create their...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Geography and Culture of China

For Teachers 7th
Take out a map, a paper, a ruler, and those coveted colored pencils for a lesson on Chinese culture and geography. This is a multifaceted approach to basic geography skills that incorporate story telling, class discussion, primary source...
Lesson Plan
Indian Land Tenure Foundation

Create a Map

For Teachers K - 2nd
Do your students have a connection to their natural environment? Create neighborhood maps together with your little learners. The lesson starts as the class talks about where they live and what their homes look like. They review their...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

John Smith’s Map of the Chesapeake Bay

For Teachers 4th - 5th Standards
Young geographers travel back through time with primary source and map analysis and envision Captain John Smith's arrival at the Chesapeake Bay. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Map Skills

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
Students explore geography by creating a poster presentation in class. For this mapping lesson, students identify the different components featured on a modern day map and how to utilize them in order to navigate. Students read a book...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Basic Mapping Skills

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Establish and study the parts of a map with your class and, then they will work in small groups to create their own detailed map, including a legend.  There are specific instructions to follow on what needs to be included.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lewis and Clark

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students investigate Lewis and Clark. In this Lewis and Clark instructional activity, students search the Internet for information about Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery. Students use maps to understand the explorations and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Three Dimensional Geology

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Here is a fine lesson plan on geology designed for high schoolers. Learners use rocks, fossils, and other geological clues to determine the geology of an area. Then, they make recommendations to a fictitious city council about the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Great Lakes Homepage for Kids

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Here are some outstanding lessons on the geology and history of the Great Lakes. These lessons are divided into Grade 4 -6, and Grade 7 - 8 activities. The activities all use the background information, maps, graphs, data, and Great...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Reading Maps: Locating the Countries We Have Been Reading About

For Teachers 3rd Standards
Show your class how to read a map and decipher all of the markings and features. Start out by connecting maps to their homework from the night before and their current reading, in this case That Book Woman, and a related informational...