Sessions

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Session 1: What is a map?

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will identify the five themes of geography: location, place, movement, places and people change each other, and region.

Students will examine what a geographer does. 

Students will compare pictures and maps to understand what a map is.

Students will contrast a globe and a map.

HOMEWORK:

Create a map of your bedroom and share it with the class in the next session. 

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Session 2: Map Key and Symbols

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define map key, symbols, routes, waterways and landforms.

Students will share the bedroom maps they had created for homework.

Students will determine how different colors and symbols help someone to read a map. 

Students will practice reading and making maps with a map key, routes, waterways, landforms and symbols.

HOMEWORK:

Create a map of your own country using a map key, symbols, different colors, routes, waterways and landforms. Be ready to share your map with the class in the next session.

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Session 3: Compass Rose and Directions

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define compass rose, cardinal directions, ordinal directions, magnetic north and magnetic south, routes and compass.

Students will follow compass directions in order to solve a group of mazes. 

Students will label cardinal and ordinal directions on compass.

Students will examine Earth's magnetic field and the movement of the magnetic poles.

Students will present their maps to the class. 

HOMEWORK: 

Let's play Hide and Seek! Use a compass to place labels of cardinal and ordinal directions (labels are provided) around your home. Have someone hide something in your room then try to find it using the number of students with the direction you should travel. Take a photo of your house. Be ready to share the images, directions and what the object was with the class in the next session. 

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Session 4: Map Grid

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define map coordinates and map grid.

Students will present the photographs, the object, directions and outcome of their homework with the class. 

Students will practice finding objects on a map using map grids using the game Battleship.

HOMEWORK: 

Create a treasure map with a map grid, map key, compass rose and symbols. Write directions to find the treasure using the map grid and compass rose. Be ready to share your homework with the class in the next session. 

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Session 5: Latitude and Longitude

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define latitude and longitude. 

Students will identify the five major lines of latitude:

Arctic Circle, Tropic of Cancer, Equator, Tropic of Capricorn and Antarctic Circle on a map. 

Students will read lines of latitude and longitude when trying to locate something on a map.

Students will discover what geocaching is.

Students will learn how geocachers use lines of latitude and longitude to determine the location of a cache.

Students will learn how to use a GPS device.

HOMEWORK: 

Complete the Find the Thief game. 

Optional: Go geocaching with your family and let us know in the next session how it went. 

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Session 6: Hemispheres

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define Northern hemisphere, Southern hemisphere, Eastern hemisphere, and Western hemisphere.

Students will identify the Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western hemispheres on a globe and map. 

Students will locate what two hemispheres different countries belong to. 

Students will explain the importance of the Equator and Prime Meridian.

HOMEWORK: 

Complete the hemispheres packet. Be prepared to review the packet in class during the next session.

 

Session 7: Map Scale

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will define scale, near, far and distance.

Students will review the hemisphere packet they had for homework.

Students will practice determining the distance between objects on a map using the map scale. 

Students will construct a map using a map scale, symbols, map key, colors, map grid, routes, waterways, landforms and compass rose.

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