Primary sources—even those that seem mundane—offer a window into those who experienced history. Using a Red Cross map offered to soldiers stationed in Paris after World War II alongside worksheet questions, scholars consider what life...

In this word problem instructional activity, 5th graders use a coordinate grid as a map to answer 6 problems. They work with ordered pairs, locate quadrants, and apply the information to find items in the zoo.

Measurement and map skills are the focus of this lesson plan, 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...

Mission Possible: Your task is to design a new highway route from Tunis, Tunisia to Cape Town, South Africa. If you accept the challenge, you must create a small map of the route that has already been rejected, a...

Third graders develop an understanding of maps. They explore what a map is, who uses maps, and how to use maps. Students investigate the compas rose. They create a compose rose which illustrates the cardinal directions. Students practice...

Students study things the you need to know to read a map and explain location.

Students create a map grid system. In this map lesson plan, students discuss how mapmakers use a grid system to make giving directions easier. Students learn how the grid system works and create a grid system on their landscape pictures.

Can you read a map? Scholars use an interactive technology tool to analyze maps of various kinds to gather evidence and data to better understand their meanings and usefulness. Using newly obtained knowledge, they form an interpretation...

Young archaeologists practice their mapping skills by creating a detailed site map of their room or another room in their home. After indicating walls, windows, doors, and closets, they add furniture and objects, labeling each item.

What's around the block? Or down the street? Ask your pupils to tap into their map skills by drafting the area around their home and school.

Find the distance between various locations in a neighborhood. Scholars use the interactive to find distances between locations on a map. The map is overlaid onto a grid to provide coordinates for each location, and pupils apply...

Introduce your class to map projections and coordinates, the basics for the work done in a GIS, with an activity that uses Google Earth to challenge learners to think about the earth's shape. 

Second graders solve a map mystery. In this technology lesson plan, 2nd graders develop an awareness of maps and the symbols associated with maps as they the "Neighborhood Map Machine."

Students create a map of their community. In this mapping instructional activity, students identify various geographical features and the cardinal directions on maps displayed in the classroom. Students are divided into three groups to...

Young pupils develop their mapping skills and knowledge by designing their own islands, using geographic terms and physical features they have learned as features of their work.

Bring life to your next California geography lesson with this great project! Learners design a three-dimensional wall relief map of California, painting and decorating regions using a variety of materials and labeling major geographical...

The last activity in a nine-part series has teams create a Google Earth map using the data they collected during a field trip. Using the map, groups analyze the results and make adjustments to the map to reflect their analysis. A short...

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.

Students create a map of the school and surrounding neighborhood.  In this mapping lesson, students discover their school's location and learn about its past.  Students use math skills and the steps in the design process to...

Encourage young learners to explore the United States with this printable map puzzle. A fun activity that engages children in learning US geography.

Continuing their study of beneficial insects, young entomologists discover where in the world some of these bugs are. By labeling, coloring, and using the scale on a map, pupils explore the territories and arrival of the Asian lady...

Life in the Bering Sea, food webs, and the ocean ecosystem are introduced with a map activity. The lesson starts as kids explore maps and images of the Bering Sea, then it kicks into high gear as they start to discuss the types of...

Be shore to use this drifter resource. The third installment of a five-part series has learners using the NOAA's Adopt-a-Drifter website to track to movement of a drifter (buoy) in the ocean. Graphing the collected data on a map allows...

Just how do we live in a global society? Scholars investigate an AP review video to see the transition in the latter half of the 20th century to a global economy. The final video of nine installments helps them examine and analyze the...