Students study maps to help them interpret the information presented.
Students, beginning in kindergarten and continuing through elementary school, learn use a map and globe. Students need time observing, creating and analyzing maps to appreciate and understand maps as they continue learning about the world during the rest of their school years.
Kindergarten Map Lessons
Kindergarten students will enjoy tracing the adventures on their map of the hero of a story you read.
Kindergarten students need to determine the difference between water and land on a globe. Throw a globe beach ball to students. When they catch the ball, they will announce to the class if their right thumb is on land or water. You might want to tie a ribbon to all of the students' right thumbs prior to this activity.
They also need to be able to understand items on the legend of the map. Read a story to the class. Choose a book where the character takes a trip. It could be "Little Red Riding Hood," "The Gingerbread Man" or any story that involves movement of the character from one place to another. Have the class draw a map of the adventures. They should include a legend outlining some stops along the main character's route.
First and Second Grade Map Lessons
For older students, add more landmarks to your map, such as the Great Lakes, major rivers, Canada and Mexico.
Students in early primary grades need to identify their community, state, country, all of the seven continents and the four oceans. Have the students choose a label, on which you have written the name of a community, state, country, continent or ocean. Add rivers or lakes that are close to your community, until you have one label for each child. Draw a blank map of the world on a blank shower curtain. Have the students come up to the blank map one at a time to attach their labels to the proper spot.
The students should be able to locate these landmarks on a globe after labeling the blank map several times.
Third and Fourth Grade Map and Globe Lessons
In the third and fourth grades, students learn more about the geographical regions in their state. They also should be able to identify places on a map or globe by using a coordinate grid of longitude and latitude. Understanding the location of the prime meridian, the equator, the tropics and the poles is part of the objectives in social studies.
As a class, make a large salt-dough map of your state. Make distinctions by the topography and color of the geographical regions. The students should be able to identify the valley, mountains or deserts located in your state.
Fifth Grade Map and Globe Lessons
Learning the states and their capitals can be fun with games, songs and puzzles.
In fifth grade, students learn the names and locations of the fifty states. They also should know the names of the capitals for every state. Place a big bulletin board on the wall with a blank outline of the country that has the states outlined. Provide a stack of cards with the states on them and a stack of cards with the capitals printed on them. Let the kids place the names on the appropriate state with your supervision. Have state puzzles in your classroom, play online games that ask the students to name the states and capitals. Sing songs naming the states and capitals. Provide the students with blank maps to label for homework.
Tags: should able, They also, able identify, also should, cards with