Learning to Read Maps

The ability to read maps is as important for gaining understanding about the world as ability to read itself. Follow the steps of learning described in the text.

Beyond making maps of their rooms/classrooms, “Google maps” will be a most useful resource. Using the slider, you can readily scale from a world map to local neighborhoods and switch between the “map view” and the “satellite view”, which gives actual photos. Kids love to find and identify their own homes.

Keep a globe at hand for making constant connections between any map and its location in the world at large. Google maps do not include a compass star but the they are all oriented in the traditional way: North up, south down, east to the right, west to the left. Integrate the compass directions as you go along.

Don’t neglect the exercises described in the text for teaching  kids how to use a map to find their way from one location to another

Watch/listen to the news and use “google maps” to locate places where events are taking place. Various games may be found at:

http://world-geography-games.com