PreK Social Studies - Mapping Skills

We have been busy mapping things as we are cooped up in our homes due to extreme Winter conditions. It is been fun constructing and learning about maps!

My Town by Sindy McKay 
© Everything Family Guide

Before we begin, let’s look at the description of a map: 

A map is a portrait of a place or a guide for when you are lost. It shows you how to get from one place to another. Sometimes, we look at maps to find things that we are not familiar with. At other times, we look at a map to learn about a place and all of its geographic locations. Maps and Geography go hand in hand. Geography is the study of lands and its various features like water bodies (rivers, lakes, seas, and the ocean) and landforms (grasslands, hills and mountains). The Global map does not change much as the land stays as is, but local/town maps are always changing or growing, as new communities are built. Global maps list the name of continents, countries, islands or large bodies of water like the sea or large lakes. Local/City or Town maps list the names of streets/roads/highways, rivers/lakes/ponds, small towns, landmarks (historical or monumental structures) or other government services (hospitals, parks/recreation or schools/universities) offered within that city or town.

The best way to learn and teach about a map is to start small. For this activity, we will be making a map of our home. To get started, you need a ruler (17 inches or longer), skinny-tip marker, pencil, and a large piece of paper like a poster paper (The larger the paper, the better it is to teach the concept of mapping; a smaller piece of paper will make everything look squished and confusing for the little ones). This activity may take a few days, as you cannot possibly finish all tasks in one day.

Vocabulary:

• Map
• Mapping 
• Compass Rose
• Legend
• Global Map
• City or Town Map
• Line
• Label
• Direction
• "Bird's View"

Activity Ideas (with skills learned):

Day 1: You will need to sit down with a book that talks about maps; the book could be a fictional or non-fiction one. We read the book called "My Town" by Sindy McKay. You can also pour through old city maps together, to give your child an idea about maps and how they look. 

Skill: Identifying what a map looks like.

© Everything Family Guide

Day 2: Practice drawing a line or lines using a ruler. This is a skill in itself as it requires practice and your child will not be able to do it the first time. Sometimes, the ruler may move and other times they won’t be able to hold a pencil and ruler to draw a line (you will need to hold the ruler, while they draw and vice versa). Practice drawing straight lines and connecting the lines to make boxes. The boxes don’t have to be perfect so please take it easy on the little one. 

Skill: Drawing a line with a pencil with the use of a ruler.

Day 3: Conduct a walk through the house and name different rooms in the house. Talk about how to get from one room to another room. Say: In order to get to the kitchen, we have to cut through the dining room. What is this room called? It's a spare bedroom or guest room. 

Skill: Identifying places (i.e. rooms) and understanding directions (i.e. how to go somewhere from one point of location to another).

Day 4: Talk to your child about the "Bird's View" and how you will be drawing a map as if it was viewed by a bird from above. You will need to draw the map for the first few places/rooms within the house. You will be demonstrating how to draw a line using a ruler and constructing the various rooms. Talk about what you are doing as you draw, so that your child can be engaged in the activity. Say: I am going to make the walls to the closet and then add a hallway that leads to the rooms in the house. Afterwards, let your child help you draw the lines, while you hold the ruler in place. 

Skill: Drawing and constructing a map.

Day 5: Once the mapping exercise is complete, you need to label the different rooms in the house. Talk about the different rooms in the map and label them as you discuss where each room is. 

Skill: Review the contents of a map and learn about labeling objects in a picture.

Day 6: Cut out pictures of furniture items from old furniture store flyers or catalogues that you have lying around your home. Glue the pictures of the furniture items in the designated rooms of the house. 

Skill: cutting and identifying where things go in a home.

Here is the completed project: 

© Everything Family Guide

Day 7: Make a simple Compass Rose (East, West, North, and South)

We made a simple Compass Rose by drawing a plus sign with arrows (for direction; north points upwards). After we drew our map, we talked about things that were in the North corner of the house map. We then talked about how to get there by using directional words. Say: How do we get to the main bedroom from the door? We turn right at the living room and head straight North to the main bedroom. 

Skill: learn to draw a compass and learn the four direction words.

© Everything Family Guide

Day 8: Make a simple Legend/Key (symbols and descriptions)

The whole idea behind making a simple Legend/Key is to get your child to understand their purpose on a map. A legend is a reference guide that represents certain symbols or pictures on a map and explains their meaning. All legends are unique to the map they represent. There is no limit on how extensive or long a legend can be. You can add important landmarks, places or things on a map and then describe them with a word(s) on the legend. For example, a line on our map represents the walls. Say: What do the lines on the house map represent? The lines represent the walls and how the house is divided into different rooms. Skill: Learn to read legends and their representations on a map.

© Everything Family Guide

Assessing to see if your child acquired the necessary mapping skills:

Game #1 - This is a Q/A game and can be played by 2 or more players. We asked and answered questions by ringing a hand bell for our turns. Here are some sample questions from our game:

How many rooms or doors in the house? How many steps does it take to get from the main door to the bedroom? How many emergency exits in the house, including windows and doors? 

Every Q/A game will be different as all houses are not the same. I wrote my questions on a sticky note, so that we can always come back to the answers for review and discussion.

© Everything Family Guide

Game #2 - You will need a dice and the completed map project. To play, roll the dice and drop on the map. Wherever the dice drops in an area of the map, that person has to go to the specific room in the house and count to 5 before returning to their tables. Record who went to which room on a piece of paper divided into a column chart. The player who misses and the dice rolls off the map, loses a turn. The player who goes to the most rooms wins.

Later on, we will add more types of map activities related to this blog post (like the map of our street and surrounding areas/services, map of our city, studying a weather map and a going on a scavenger hunt using a treasure map). So be on the lookout for updates, Thanks!

Annie

Map your world and your life to make everything simple and easy to see.