Orienteering: Map Skills

Second and third graders practice with basic map skills. They create their own map including a legend and a compass rose. This fabulous plan has many excellent websites linked which allow learners to explore maps of all kinds; including...

Young geographers travel back through time with primary source and map analysis and envision Captain John Smith's arrival at the Chesapeake Bay. 

Young scholars discuss what types of things are included on a map. They compare and contrast maps of China with a map they create and practice using different types of maps. They write analysis of their classmates maps.

Students discover orienteering. In this orienteering instructional activity, students search for six specific landmarks. Students brainstorm how maps and landmarks are helpful.

Students practice orienteering, a popular sport in Australia and Sweden. They practice reading and using a map to locate six specific landmarks in a given area.

Students create and read maps. In this map skills lesson, students draw a map of their neighborhood, then use skills acquired during map-making to interpret a classmates map and a map of the Ming Dynasty.

Fourth graders become familiar with and able to read city and state maps, plot a route on a state map, and use scale to determine locations one-half and one mile away from the school. They construct a map of their own.

First graders use maps to identify five specific landmarks in a local area. In groups, they create a list of how maps and landmarks can help them find their way to a place. They complete an exercise in which they use symbols found on...

Young scholars are introduced to the key concepts of maps; direction, pathway/line, shape and symbol. They create the pathways and shapes they have "mapped" out on paper on the floor. They dance along the paths.

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...