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Map Skills Published by Soli Deo Gloria Resources Copyright I 2002 by Kim Kargbo Revised edition I 2008 by Kim Kargbo All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher, with the exception of brief quotations in critical reviews or articles. Home educators who purchase this material may copy worksheet or appendix pages for their own personal use only. Printed in the United States of America Soli Deo Gloria Resources Kim Kargbo (901) 218-5243 kimkargbo@gmail.com www.solideogloriaresources.com 3
A Word of Thanks There are many people to whom I owe a debt of gratitude in both my home education and my home business endeavors. First of all, eternal gratitude goes to my Savior, Jesus, for making effective the Father s calling on my eternal soul, and to the Holy Spirit, who constantly enables me to complete the tasks to which I am called. Many thanks to my husband, Tim, for allowing me to homeschool our three precious children and to Josiah, Christiana and Jeremiah for piloting and field-testing all of the material. There are also other people who have supported and aided me along the journey my parents, Les and Diane Kimball, for their constant support and encouragement, my sister, Karen, for cover designs and editing, and several covenant sisters for encouragement, help with children, support, editing and countless other services. Unit Studies and Bible Studies available from Soli Deo Gloria Resources: Native Americans Colonial America Lewis and Clark Civil War Westward Ho! The American Presidents An Overview of US History (1776-2008) Civil Rights World War II The Human Body Weather Map Skills Sierra Leone, West Africa The Mississippi River Oceans and Marine Life The History of Flight Young Hearts Longing for God A Pre-Inductive Psalm Study The Godly Woman A Study in Proverbs 31 for Girls AND Boys Other Materials: Evaluating Writing A Practical Tool for Subjective Grading (with rubric pad) Contact Kim or see our website for updates and additional products. 4
Map Skills Unit Study Grade Level: Time Period: K 6th grade 3 weeks Objectives: 1) Students will learn basic directional skills. 2) Students will demonstrate basic map reading skills at a level appropriate to their age and learning level. 3) The mention of direction (both map directions and direction for life) in the Bible will be correlated and discussed. 4) Students will demonstrate appropriate language skills related to map reading, directionality and basic geography. Recommended Resources: Map Skills for Today Weekly Reader Skills Books (workbooks) These inexpensive workbooks come in various levels and content areas up through 6 th grade. You can order whichever book would best suit your particular student, allowing you to teach the same unit to multiple students in different grades simultaneously. While the books do increase in difficulty level as they go up, due to the different map content of each book, they can be overlapped to some degree, depending on the level of geographic ability your child has already. If you prefer not to use a workbook, that is fine too. Your child will still learn the basics of geography and map reading through the other activities. These workbooks are available through Rainbow Resource for $4 at (www.rainbowresource.com) or through Amazon.com or your local chain bookstore. The levels are as follows: Grade 1 Finding Your Way Grade 2 Take a Trip With Us Grade 3 Maps Across America Grade 4 Traveling Near and Far Grade 5 Americas in Focus Grade 6 All Around the World In addition to the option workbooks listed above, you will need to have: - A variety of maps (globe, atlas, wall maps, road atlas, etc.) - A compass - Blank maps (these are available online) - A map of your town (section of town if you are in a large city, or nearby town if you are in a rural area) - Various materials for the hands-on activities you choose to complete - Any number of reading books that illustrate and reinforce the points in this study (a list of suggestions is provided in the appendix) 5
Unit Overview: This unit consists of activities in the following skill categories: - Map reading - Supplemental math skills related to maps and geography (continue using your standard math curriculum) - Language arts (vocabulary, creative writing, grammar, handwriting, other) - Bible comprehension - Geography The only thing you will need in addition to this unit will be your standard math curriculum and your phonics program for young learners. The above skills are taught through a variety of methods including; workbooks, hands-on activities, crafts, kinesthetic activities and map work. When you are planning your day, keep in mind that hands-on activities and crafts always take longer than you expect! The lesson plans provided are based on a four-day school week. If you school for five days, you can either complete the unit in less time by continuing through the lessons, or you can use the fifth day to do other things, catch up on core curriculum areas, or add an additional activity from the optional activities listed at the end of the unit. These activities are more difficult or time consuming, so they are put in as options for older students or for extra days, as desired. Note for older students: While some older students (4 th 6 th grade) may already have a good baseline of knowledge in map skills, this unit study can be easily adapted for them by using a higher level workbook and modifying the hands-on activities to make them more complicated. Use the optional activities listed at the end for older students, to increase the difficulty level. 6
Week One Day 1 1) Gather as many different kinds of maps as you can find in your house (an atlas, a globe, a road atlas, wall maps, relief maps, precipitation maps, etc.). Discuss the different types of maps and the use that each one is best suited for. Point out that if you were taking a trip across the country, a globe would not be very helpful, because it does not have roads on it. Globes are used to get a big picture of the world s geography. Even different types of atlases have different uses. Some atlases are historical, showing maps of country border and cities as they used to be, but are not any longer. Some atlases are specifically used for road travel. Large wall maps give you a good picture of a specific piece of geography, like a country or a state, and will show you more details about that area. Look over the different maps and have the students compare them, pointing out things that are the same or different about each one. 2) Discuss and label a compass rose. You can draw one on a sheet of paper for your child to label, or you can print one out from: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/geography/printouts/compassrose.shtml Discuss the importance of the compass rose to map reading, to show us our orientation on the map which way is north, south, etc. It keeps all map reading standardized, so it doesn t become confusing. Look at a couple of different maps and have the student identify the compass rose on each one. 3) Sometimes we don t have a map or a compass to use to show direction, so we can use the sun. Show the child how the sun always rises in the east and sets in the west. It travels in an arch overhead throughout the day, so that at noon it is nearly directly overhead. (This will, of course, be somewhat different if you live in the extreme north or south of the earth and also varies by the seasons. Depending on the ages and understanding levels of your children, you can discuss these variances or not.) 4) Using small sticky notes (like a Post-It pad), label four sheets of the pad with N, S, W and E. Give the four notes to your child and have them place them on the four walls of the room in which you do school. Have them use what they ve learned about the sunrise and sunset as a guide. Give them a couple tries, to get the walls labeled correctly, and then help them do it, as needed. 5) Have the child draw a map of his/her bedroom. Draw in doorways and windows, furniture and important features. Label everything. Optionally, you can have the child make a diorama of his/her room using a large shoe box or other box. The furniture can be made out of cardstock or construction paper and decorated to match what is in the room. 7