Mapping it Out!

So... I am Back!

It has been so LONG... I hope you are still here with me. It has been a crazy couple of few weeks- but I have made my way through it all and have some fun stuff to share!

So Mapping-

Do you teach maps? We do the whole Me on the Map thing and learn our city, state, country, yadda, yadda... But I love mapping! Maybe it the Girl Scout in me! lol

So every year I break out all of the mapping skills and tools I can wrangle and teach my kids all about maps and how to use them. After we do the Me on the Map goodies, I go into directions.

We learn North, South, East, and West (and my favorite mnemonic device - Never Eat Soggy Waffles; which by the way my kids LOVE and have now mastered the names of the directions!)

To do this I have a set of compass key chains from Target. I have 6 of them so my kids work in in groups of 3-4.

They sit in a circle surrounding their compass while I give instructions on how to use it and which way to turn it etc...

Then we all look at them together, in our groups and figure out where North, South, East and West are.

After we have had a a few min of compass practice I assign them all a sign. Some groups get a direction and others get an object. Direction kids have to tape their sign to the correct wall using their compass. They object kids go to their object and use their compass to the complete the sentences: "Our object is ________. It is on the ________ wall."

Later we head outside with our compasses to locate things on our campus in each direction.

We use our compass to find the directions and talk about what we see. Then the kids draw a picture of one of those things:

We didn't use a fancy worksheet, but I have one here for you! Click the pic to download!

Next week we will be building a neighborhood map-model and the kiddos will be writing directions (informational text- hello CCSS) to get from various places in the neighborhood. I can't wait to share it with you!

And it will all lead up to using a "special map" left by Frosty the Snowman to find our holiday gifts on the last day before winter break! (Plus I get to squeeze in some sequence writing about how they found their gifts!)

Well, since I have been gone I have a bunch to share... so see you Friday!