Curated OER
What Do Maps Show?
This teaching packet is for grades five through eight, and it is organized around geographic themes: location, place, relationships, movement, and regions. There are four full lessons that are complete with posters, weblinks, and...
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Caves
Explore caves with your class! Your scholars will participate in scientific observation, research, inference and deduction, reading, vocabulary, and writing activities about caves with this lesson plan. This resource contains five...
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Orienteering - Lesson 1 - Maps & Map Scales
Lesson 1 of 10 lessons in this orienteering unit is about maps and map scales. After all, orienteering is all about maps, compasses, and finding ones' way around. It is imperative to be able to read maps and understand the relevance of...
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Map Skills
Thirds graders reinforce that a map is a drawing that shows what a place looks like from above. They use a map key and symbols to create a map of the school and its neighborhood.
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Map Coordinates: Monkey Map
Here's an engaging, meaningful, and clever lesson on map skills for elementary schoolers. Pupils combine story writing with mapping skills to create an original piece of work. They utilize a worksheet embedded in the plan to guide them...
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Play Doh Map of Your State
Young scholars create a state map using Playdoh. In this hands-on state geography lesson, students work in groups to form a three-dimensional map of their state using Playdoh made at home following a (given) recipe. Young scholars...
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Reading Comprehension
After listening to a story learners engage in a kinesthetic activity to answer comprehension and critical thinking questions. Finally, the students identify three main facts about the story. Extensions include a fact and opinion...
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Finding Captain Hook's Treasure
Students use their map-reading skills to find Captain Hook's treasure. They see how the directions on a map correspond with "real-life" directions, and that symbols on a map represent real things.
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Way to Go! Create a Road Map Game
Young scholars create a travel game of one of the United States. They research a state of their choice and create a travel game using a common road map. They interpret map symbols as they calculate map mileage for their games. They...
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Where in the World Is Mexico?
Learners practice map-reading skills as they locate Mexico and its cities on a world map. By creating a puzzle out of a map of Mexico, students engage in a meaningful hands-on activity to help them explore that country's geography.
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Designing a Hiking Trail
Put your students' map skills to the test with this engaging cross-curricular project. Given the task of developing new hiking trails for their local community, young cartographers must map out beginner and intermediate...
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Lewis and Clark
Students investigate Lewis and Clark. In this Lewis and Clark lesson, students search the Internet for information about Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery. Students use maps to understand the explorations and decide which...
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Map of Ship Trap Island
Students read the short story "The Most Dangerous Game," and create maps of Ship Trap Island and justify why items are placed on their map in certain locations.
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Map It!
Fourth graders demonstrate map making skills by using the computer to create maps of the geographic features, regions, and economy for their state.
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As the Kids Come and Go: Mapping a Classroom
Map the classroom with your kids to help them understand how maps work and how to read them. The lesson starts off with a story about animals living and moving around the globe, and then kids create maps of their classroom to show how...
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Virtual Field Trip
Are we there yet? Young trip planners learn about their state and plan a trip. They will select sites to see in three cities in their state, and record associated costs in a spreadsheet. While this was originally designed as a...
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Mapping Electricity
Students complete Internet research and use their map reading skills to learn about how the United States creates and uses electricity in different states. In this energy sources activity, students study the mini map of energy usage...
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Volcano Contour Models Activity
Students experiment with water levels and plastic topographic volcano models to determine the contour lines that would be used to create a topograpohic map of a volcano. They use the traced lines to actually develop the map.
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Orienteering: Map Skills
Students discover orienteering. In this orienteering lesson, students search for six specific landmarks. Students brainstorm how maps and landmarks are helpful.
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Map It Out
Explore how illustrations add to a story. Young learners will look at picture books to see how the pictures tell the story. They create illustrations to go with a chosen story, and then flip the activity so they have to write a story to...
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Map It With Pixie
Fourth graders use the computer program 'Pixie' to create a topographic, detailed map for the state they live in. In this mapping skills lesson, 4th graders use Pixie to make a map of their state that includes topographic features, state...
Mary Pope Osborne, Classroom Adventures Program
The Backpack Travel Journals
Strap on those backpacks, it's time to travel through history with this literature unit based on the first four books of The Magic Tree House series. While reading through these fun stories, children create story maps, record...
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Project Whistlestop:Missouri Vacation Learning Unit
Fourth graders reserach the state of Missouri. For this Missouri History lesson, 4th graders plan a vacation to a region of Missouri. Students work in collaborative groups to determine all aspects of the trip. Students use math...
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People Change the Landscape
Students examine ways in which humans have brought change to the natural environment. In this ecology and literacy lesson, students listen to the book Island Boy by Barbara Cooney. Students observe and define map-reading vocabulary as...