Developing mapping skills is foundational to improving reading comprehension, bolstering spatial skills, increasing visual literacy, and teaching students how to map ideas visually. Students gain an appreciation of our beautiful planet, their place in the world, and the importance of visual anchors to help us navigate through our communities.
This collection of 15 me-on-a-map activities features a mapping flip book, printable student booklets, interactive worksheets, videos, reading resources, and hands-on projects to make learning about maps fun and engaging.
1. Me on the Map Craft
This colorful craft makes for a wonderful visual anchor to help kids distinguish between their street, town, state, continent, and planet. It can be assembled with just a few classroom supplies and includes a template for students to trace and cut out.
Learn more: Playdough to Plato
2. Read Me On the Map
This cute book features fun illustrations to help students develop their understanding of map skills. It makes a great introduction to any Social Studies unit and can easily be combined with skills worksheets to reinforce student learning.
Learn more: Amazon
3. Learn About Map Features With a Video
This short and engaging video teaches students all about the symbols, compass rose, and map key. It’s an awesome resource for helping students get familiar with important geographic features as symbolized on real-world maps.
Learn more: Vids 4 Kids TV
4. Make an Anchor Chart to Share Places on a Map
An anchor chart is a great way to consolidate student learning and guide their exploration during an in-depth unit. Students can list places they might find in their town and practice mapping their geographic locations on a bulletin board display.
Learn more: Firstieland
5. Make Your Own Map
Assemble students into groups to create their own town maps for this hands-on project that is sure to stir their imaginations. Armed with some construction paper, students can draw their own roads and use paper scraps to add in all the different places in their communities.
Learn more: Firstieland
6. Mapping Unit Video
This animated Brainpop video makes a great introduction to any map skills unit. The accompanying resource features geography vocabulary, a quiz to test basic geography knowledge, and suggested student projects. Students will discover the features that nearly all maps share and the basics of how to read a paper or digital map.
Learn more: Brain POP
7. Parts of a Map Flip Book for Elementary Students
This interactive flip book activity included a printable flip book template, along with assembly instructions, to create a fun hands-on learning activity for students. The accompanying vocabulary guide can easily be converted to a quiz to assess student learning.
Learn more: Simple Living Creative Learning
8. Me on the Map Lesson
This multi-part lesson will help students understand their place in the world by creating a map of their room and playing a cup stacking game. It includes student printables to develop students’ understanding of geography and can be combined with a variety of picture books to enhance student learning.
Learn more: Study
9. Listen to a Me on the Map Read Aloud
This fun read-aloud book is a great way for elementary-grade students to visualize maps in various parts of the world. The colorful maps and characters create a compelling narrative that is sure to draw in young listeners.
Learn more: STEM Hax
10. Map Skills Geography Activity
By measuring the distance between cities, students can develop their numeracy and spatial skills. This resource also features printable worksheets and makes a great addition to any unit on communities.
Learn more: National Geographic
11. Mapping Unit for Kindergarten
What better way to develop students’ understanding of geography than by getting them up and moving in the four cardinal directions? By recording the position of the sun in the morning and afternoon, they will have a memorable learning experience to help them differentiate between East and West.
Learn more: National Geographic
12. Hands-On Activity Packet
This amazing learning resource helps young develop a basic understanding of their location in time and space. It also teaches them how to differentiate between continents, countries, and cities.
Learn more: Twinkl
13. My Place in the World Writing Template Craft
This writing-based activity is sure to inspire students to explore their location in the world and provides a great discussion starter for any map skills lesson.
Learn more: Twinkl
14. Me on the Map Worksheet
In this activity, students are challenged to answer a series of mapping skill questions by referring to a map, compass rose, and map key. This is an accessible resource for getting familiar with the features of a map as well as the four cardinal directions.
Learn more: Education
15. Map Where Your Food Comes From
Maps come in all different shapes and sizes. This inventive activity connects these colorful diagrams full of symbols and shapes to the idea of a global footprint by tracing where different foods come from around the world.
Learn more: Education
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