Connection to the National Geography Standards:
Number One:
How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a special perspective. With this lesson, the students will learn to read and create simple maps.
Number Three:
How to analyze the spatial organization of people, places, and environments of the Earth’s surface. The students will create a map through hands-on work and will be able to analyze how the community is laid out.
Number Four:
Physical and human characteristics of places. The students will be able to identify bodies of water, bridges, houses, etc. They will also be able to identify if it is a man-made object, or a physical characteristic of the earth.
Applicable Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills:
1. The student understands the concept of location.
a. They will use terms including over, under, near, far, left, right, to describe relative location.2. The student understands the physical and human characteristics of the environment.b. The student can locate places on the school campus and describe the relative location.
a. The student can identify physical characteristics of places, such as land forms, bodies of water, natural resources, and weather.b. The student can identify human characteristics of places, such as, houses and ways of earning a living.
1. Students will be able to identify the differences between physical and man made objects on the earth’s surface.
2. The students will be able to locate their house on a map.
3. The students will be able to list qualities and properties of a fireman and a police man.
4. The students will be able to work with art supplies to create a class map.
5. The students will know what a legend is and how to create and use one.
6. The students will know how to follow and create directions.
Overview of Presentation of Project
The project is an eight day study of people and objects that belong in neighborhoods. The students look at community helpers and the way each helper contributes to the community. The students build a large map and learn vauable skills like how to follow directions. The students will also be able to see diferent types of maps on the computer.
Day One
Materials: Paper Crayons Milk Cartons and other various boxes, Glue, Paint, Any spare art materials such as construction paper, twigs, wood, etc. Book pertaining to neighborhoods or houses, Chalk,Tape
Sponge Activity: (15 min)
Have the students draw and color their house and their families. Hang these on the wall.
Opening: (10 min)
The teacher will begin the class by letting the students show each other the house that they live in and their family. The teacher will then ask the students what is in the neighborhood in which they live. Explain to the students that a neighborhood is the area around their house that includes other houses, schools, bridges, trees, etc. Make a list of what the students have around their houses.
Guided Practice: (35 min)
The teacher will provide art supplies. The students will create their house. They will use milk cartons as a base. They will add chimneys, or other thing to their home to make it look like the home in which they live. If a child lives in an apartment building find other students in the same apartment building complex. Let the children work together to create the area in which they live. Bigger boxes may be needed for an apartment complex. Let the children experiment with how large or how small their house is compared to other things around their house. The teacher will suggest ways to make each house personal. For example, the color, size, shape, etc. The teacher may let them create more than one house. (The end project calls for many houses, and either the teacher can make them, or the students can when they have free time.) After the children have completed the houses, set them in a corner to dry and read a book about houses or a neighborhood. Then, discuss the book with the students.
Evaluation:
The students will be evaluated on the participation in the art activity and the discussion at the beginning and end of the period.
Approximate time for Day One Lesson: 60 minutes
Day Two
Materials:
Directional worksheet, Crayons, Paper, An adult volunteer, Art supplies, Large boxes, to create school.
Sponge Activity: (15 min.)
Provide a worksheet that has the children follow directions. The worksheet might have a key to tell the child what color to color each object. The key can have pictures instead of words depending on the level of the students.
Opening: (10 minutes)
The teacher will begin by talking about the worksheet that the students colored. They will explain to the teacher how they knew what to color each object. The teacher will then explain the importance of directions. The students will then make a list of items that come with directions or times when they have used directions.
Guided Practice: (35 minutes)
The students will then, as a class write directions on how to get to important places in the school. There could be directions on how to get to the office, the nurse’s station, the play ground, cafeteria, or the gym. Explain to the students that you need these directions for a new student in the school and it is their job to make sure the student does not get lost. The teacher may need to help them with the ideas. Some students do not know left from right, so instead the directions could be to “turn toward...” or to “face the...” When the directions are completed, let the students have an aide or another adult use the directions with the class following behind them. The students will be able to tell if they gave clear directions or unclear directions. Art Activity: (30 minutes) (This is to be done after the lesson or during free time.) Let the students create a school replica using boxes. Either the teacher needs to make it or let the students make it. The students need to remember there are many buildings to the school. They can work as groups or individuals. Help them to also create a play ground.
Evaluation:
The students will be evaluated on how well they followed the directions on the worksheet, how much they participated in the direction making, and if they helped each other give clear directions. Approximate time for
Day Two lesson: 60 minutes
Day Three
Materials: Paper Crayons, Art materials, Boxes, Glue, Tape.
Sponge Activity: (10 minutes)
Have the students create a picture of a fireman. Do not show them pictures before they draw, this could limit their creativity. Encourage the students to draw things around the fireman. He could be in action putting out a fire or he could be where he works. Encourage them to create things that belong to the fireman like a hose, fire truck, or Dalmatian.
Opening: (15 minutes)
Have each student show their drawing and encourage them to talk about what they drew and why they drew it. Next, read a story about a fireman. Talk with the children about what a fireman does. Guided Group
Practice: (35 minutes)
Arrange the students into groups of 4 to 5 children in them each. Next, assign each group to make things that a fireman needs. Group one -- Fire station Group two -- Fire truck Group three -- Fire hydrants Group four -- Hoses Group five -- Dalmatians The more that you add the more elaborate your community will become at the end of the project. When the students finish with the items for the firemen, let them read other books on their own about firemen or let them have dramatic play time providing fire uniforms and other various props.
Evaluation:
The evaluation will be observed through the discussion. The children will have actively participated in the discussion and creation of firemen and their tools. They can also be observed through the creative play if they choose to involve themselves with it.
Approximate time of Day Three’s Lesson: 60 minutes
Day Four
Materials: Baker’s clay, Art supplies, Police man, Paper, Marker (for teacher to write list).
Sponge Activity: (15 minutes)
Set out baker’s clay and have the children create a badge. Let them mold the clay to form the badge. (Later bake the clay to harden it. Later in the week let the children paint the badges during free time.)
Opening: (25 minutes)
The teacher will ask the children who wears badges. When the children mention police officers, the teacher will ask the children what police officer’s do. The teacher will make a list of all of the things that officers do to help the community. The teacher will then read Officer Buckle and Gloria. This story speaks of an officer who goes to speak about bicycle safety at school and how his dog, Gloria helps him.
Guided Practice: (50 minutes)
The children will make a list of bike safety. They will also hear from a police officer in the community talk about bicycle safety. When the officer is finished, the children will once again get into groups. On this day they will create a police station and police cars.
Evaluation:
This evaluation will mainly come from the questions that they ask the police officer and the interest level the children seem to have.
Approximate time for Day Four lesson: (90 minutes)
Day Five
Materials:
Sponge Activity: (10 minutes) The students will have a worksheet that has symbols that can relate to Police men, firemen, or the school. Have them color the different objects as to what category they belong to. (Yellow = School, Blue = Police man, and Red = Fireman.)
Opening: (25 minutes)
The teacher will have a map of the town. The teacher will show the students where things are. The teacher will point out streets, the school, the police station, and the fire station. Then, she will ask the students what street they live on. When the students tell her, she will find each house and point it out for the children on the map. (This map does not have to be a real map, it can be one the teacher has created. On the map, there has to be a legend.) The teacher will also point out the legend on the map and talk about why legends are important.
Guided Practice: (40 minutes)
The teacher and the students will get out the community board. (The community board already has street names and streets on the board. This will allow some organization for the next step.) The children will locate the street on which they live and place their house on the street. Next, they will locate the school and other such buildings. The teacher will help them to locate the places on the board. The children may also use the map that the teacher created to help them. When all of the important buildings are put in place the students will then create a legend on the corner of the board to help them to identify the buildings. Evaluation: The students will be evaluated by their knowledge about the symbols on the worksheet. They will also be observed in the understanding of the map.
Approximate time of Day Five’s lesson: 75 minutes
Day Six
Materials:
Community Board. Glue, Art supplies.
Sponge Activity: (10 minutes)
Have the students draw a picture of their yard at home. Have them draw trees, flowers, and a sidewalk. Have them list their address on the paper if they know it.
Opening: (15 minutes)
Have each child talk about the things in the yard. After each item as the children if it is man made or a physical part of the earth. As they decide, make a list of the man made things and a list of the physical things on the earth.
Guided Practice: (25 minutes)
Let the students create the physical and man made things. Let them put the objects on the community board. Then, ask each student if the object they made is man made or a physical part of the earth. The student’s response will let you decide if they understood the difference between the two types of objects on the earth’s surface.
Approximate time for Day Six lesson: 50 minutes
Day Seven
Materials:
Crayons Paper, sacks, Computer and overhead material to project the screen, Little Red Riding Hood By Trina Schart Hyman.
Sponge Activity (10 minutes)
Have the students create symbols that could be used on an ancient Indian map. The teacher might have some examples already on the board of symbols they could use.
Opening (25 minutes)
I would suggest that the teacher lead the children through the maps on the computer. Open the web page called Mapmaker, mapmaker, make me a map. http://www.utenn.edu/uwa/vpps/ur/ut2kids/maps/maps.html Walk the children through the maps. Talk about why the maps were created and the different features of the maps. Next read the book Little Red Riding Hood By Trina Schart Hyman. The teacher should have the students talk about what they see on the different maps presented.
Guided Practice (30 minutes)
Have the children use symbols, like the ones they saw on the computer or that they used in the sponge activity, to create a map for Little Red Riding Hood to use to get to her grandmother’s house. (Other ideas could be used with other books like the Wizard of Oz. The students could create a map for Dorothy to use.) The children could create these maps on the paper sacks and wad the sacks up to make the map appear old. Have the children display and tell about their maps. If it is easier, the teacher may just do a class map on the board with the help of the students. Evaluation The students will be evaluated by the use of the story in their map. If the students notice a large tree by the path that Little Red Riding Hood had to take, they could include that tree in the map.
Approximate time for Day Seven: 65 minutes
Day Eight
Materials:
Pencil Paper, Computer for each child or just the teacher.
Sponge Activity (10 minutes)
The children will write down their address either from memory, or with the help of a teacher. The students will paste their addresses onto the community board where they have made their house.
Opening (30 minutes)
The teacher will open the website “Maps on Us.” http://www.mapsonus.com/ She will then click the yellow button labeled “maps.” Next enter the street address, city, state, and zip code of school. When the map is on the screen, the teacher can point out the streets that the students live on. With the school as a center point the streets will most likely be on the page. To zoom in on a particular spot the teacher may double click on an area of the map. The teacher should lead the students though a discussion of what they see on the maps.
Guided Practice/ Evaluation (20 minutes)
Look once more at the community board. Talk about all of the things that they learned about. Ask each of them to point to specific locations on the community board. Ask them what they can tell you about the board. Remember to ask them if the things that they are locating are physical or man made. This is a review session for the entire unit. This will let the teacher know how well her students grasped the concepts of maps and their neighborhoods.
Approximate Time for Day Eight: 60 minutes
Appendix
Handout number one:
Handout Number Two
Bibliography:
1. Hyman, Trina Schart. Little Red Riding Food. Holiday, 1983.
2. Rathman, Peggy. Officer Buckle and Gloria. Putnam, 1995.
3. Maps on Us http://www.mapsonus.com/ (April 1999)
4. Mapmaker, mapmaker Make me a Map http://www.utenn.edu/uwa/vpps/ur/ut2kids/maps/maps.html
(April 1999)
Created 4-27-99
Return to Lesson Plans and Research Papers, 1999 (April 1999)