Map Makers

An interest in finding out about where the Inuit lived, where Flat Stanley was heading, and of course finding the buried treasures that our classroom pirates were burying, spurred a map drawing frenzy in our classroom. Child-drawn maps were everywhere! But there was something missing – landmarks or directionality. This did not bother the children at all. Black lines filled the papers and climaxed in a big X to mark the destination. No one asked where to begin or how to get to the X. A lesson aimed at building an awareness of landmarks or directions fell flat. Apparently if we always begin at the door and bury the treasure in the same spot that’s all we need to know.

But using mapping as a thinking tool and to develop spatial sense is important. Douglas Clements suggests that children as young as 3 can begin to create simple maps of their environment to link concrete spatial experience with spatial thinking.

So we began…
We started with two very keen map makers and illustrated the benefit of having a clearly marked starting point as well as some landmarks along the way to help guide us. The children agreed our new maps were much easier to follow. The commentary of the map makers also highlighted for us the positional language that could come out of this – beside, next to, in front of, behind, over, under…

Here’s a sample of the maps that we were originally trying to follow…

Below is a treasure map before any landmarks were added and a revised one with landmarks added that was so much easier to follow. (Even easier when you have the map maker encouraging you – “Yes! That’s it you’re beside the blocks now! Good for you.”)

We are continuing to enjoy a strong interest in map-making but now the maps are much easier to read. On St. Patrick’s Day, four of our little Leprechauns hid a treasure in the school for the rest of us to find. They did a fantastic job of creating an easy to read map, drawing and labeling landmarks we would pass and recording the number of steps we would need to take to arrive at our destination. The treasure was successfully located and now we are only waiting for Spring so we can fully enjoy the sidewalk chalk and bubbles we found.