I'm on the Map, too!

Lesson Author

Terry Johnson

Grades: 1-3

Lesson Summary

This lesson is designed to teach primary grade students to create maps of places at a variety of scales and then locate themselves on those maps. Young children sometimes struggle with the idea that they can be in a neighborhood, a city, and a state all at the same time. This activity will help students recognize that there are multiple ways of describing one�s location.

Literature Connection

Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney (illus. by Annette Cable)
Readers of this book will enjoy following a little girl as she locates herself in an ever-widening geographic area. After drawing a map of her bedroom, she moves on to map her house, street, town, state, country, and planet. She then retraces her path and ends up back where she began her journey.

NCSS Standard(s)

IIIb Interpret, use, and distinguish various representations of the earth, such as maps, globes, and photographs

National Geography Standard(s)

1B Show spatial information on geographic representations

1C Use geographic representations, tools, and technologies to answer geographic questions

4C Describe and compare different places at a variety of scales, local to global

Concepts and Skills

location, mapmaking

Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

  1. describe their location at multiple scales

  2. use aerial maps to create simple maps of their location at different scales

  3. locate themselves on the maps they made

Google Skills Needed

  • use the fly to box to travel around the world

  • zoom in and out of locations

  • create a placemark

Materials Needed

Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney

Computer with Google Earth software installed

LCD projector or electronic whiteboard

Copies of the aerial images that students will use to create their maps

Small stickers that each student can use to indicate his/her location on the maps he/she makes

Lesson Procedures (download PDF)