Objective 2: Recognize and use a map or globe.
a. Create a map showing important sites or landmarks on a school or community (i.e., firehouse, city hall, churches).
Engage: Read Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney. This book is about a little girl who starts in her room and uses maps to slowly zoom out to a map of the world and then zoom back in to her own room.
Explore: After reading Me on the Map, I pulled up Google Maps on the teacher's computer and projected it on to the Smart Board. I started with a map of the world and then slowly zoomed in to Wilson Elementary School so that we could find ourselves on the map like the little girl in the story did.
Explain: As we looked at the maps I explained more about maps and talked specifically about landmarks. After we were done looking at the maps I explained that the students would be creating their own maps of their classroom.
Elaborate: I let the students pick their partners and then they explored their classroom for things that would be important to put on a map of their classroom. After they were finished exploring the room they began working on their maps of the classroom. I told them to make sure that they put things on their map exactly like they were in our classroom because maps have to show things just as they are or people won’t be able to find the things they need to with them. I also explained that they should use various shapes around the room to help them draw their maps i.e., rectangle bells for tables and square pattern blocks for windows.
Evaluate: When the students were finished with their maps I looked at them to see how much they had understood about maps. They ended up doing a very good job on their maps. They were very colorful and things were put exactly where they needed to be.
Strengths:
- · The students loved being able to pick their partners and this helped them to stay on task
- · The students really enjoyed creating maps of their classroom
- · Using Google Maps to find ourselves helped keep the students on task with looking at maps
Weaknesses:
- · I did this lesson in two days and during the first day I didn’t have enough planned to get through the time I had set aside. In the future I will need to plan extra just in case we get through the lesson quicker than expected.
- · During my lesson my cooperating teacher stepped in to give students an example. I should have given the students an example myself. In the future I will make sure that I have examples prepared for my students to see.
