Learning about Maps

I wanted to help the girls get a better understanding of maps. Often in our FIAR studies, we've found places on the map, but I knew there were some things they still didn't know about them.  Colin participated as a review for him. Some things we dicussed were the continents, the oceans, compass and compass rose, symbols on maps, the difference in globes and maps, the equator, latitude and longitude, hemispheres, and scale.

We did activities from Beginning Geography: How to Use a Map. Some of the worksheets are maps of rooms, streets, and a fairy tale land that give directions to find things or get to a place. They also made their own map of our school room.

Books we read:
How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Priceman
Up North and Down South by Gonzales
Continents: A True Book by Fradin
Miranda the Explorer by Mayhew
Me on the Map by Sweeney
There's a Map on My Lap by Rabe
Mapping Penny's World by Leedy
How I Learned Geography by Shulevitz

Maps and Globes by Knowlton

Katy and the Big Snow by Burton
Oceans: A True Book by Stille
Madlenka by Sis

I used an orange to help them understand how a round object (Earth) is made flat (a map) by removing the peel in one piece and flattening it against the table.

I found the mini books on Homeschool Share by just searching since they were in different unit studies. The map to label the continents came from our Galloping the Globe book.

Here are the pictures in Caleigh's notebook.