Some Things You Need to Know to Read a Map

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.

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.

Get out the compass and a pencil its time to use a coordinate grid to practice mapping skills. Young cartographers use the prompts and provided grid to plot locations, draw parallel lines, and determine distances between points. 

Mapmaking was a very important element in successfully planning attacks on enemies during the Civil War. Guide pupils through the process of pacing to find the average length of their steps, measure the distance between one object to the...

An interactive map equipped with images, text, and clickable links takes history buffs on a journey through the Civil Rights trail. Scholars discovery locations including Atlanta, Georgia, Jackson, and Mississippi as part of an...

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.

Young scholars discuss resource maps and examine examples from library resources. Working in groups, they create edible resource maps by drawing examples, such as popcorn on the border of Iowa and Nebraska. Then they use cookies in the...

Students 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.

Students convert their physical models of a playground from a previous lesson into a map of the playground that includes a scale and key. They examine and discuss examples of maps, view an image to map photo essay, and create a map using...

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...