Hands On Map Skills: Cross Curricular Project to Teach Map Skills (Grades 2-4)

Tired of using worksheets to teach map skills? I used worksheets for years but something didn't feel right. I knew my students weren't learning map skills deeply when I was teaching this way. That was when the Hands on Map Skills project was born!

This is a social studies project that has cross-curricular connections to reading and math. In this project students use real maps to study their important features, all while refining their map skills. Then they get the chance to put all of this knowledge together as they create their own local map of a community, as well as a collaborative world map.

All of my projects start out with several days of structured lessons where students acquire the knowledge needed to work on their own. This lessens anxiety when students aren't sure what to do, because they can look back at notes to see what they previously learned. The project is awesome for those students in your class who need a challenge, as the jobs for the collaborative map are differentiated in difficulty.

Concepts covered in Social Studies: continents, oceans, countries, states/regions, local communities, urban, suburban, rural, transportation, geographical features (landforms), population, climate, equator, prime meridian, key, compass rose.

Concepts covered in Math: rounding/estimation and division.

Included in this resource:

1. Supply list (full list is in the preview)
2. Detailed lesson plans for social studies and math with photos, learning targets and instructions for how to use the formative assessments.
3. A Continents and Oceans pre/post test.
4. Note taking page with Marzano scale
5. Zooming Into My Community formative assessment (with answer key)
6. Important Map Features matching formative assessment.
7. Checklist (rubric) for students to design their own map.
8. Sample photos of student made local community maps.
9. Suggested book title list for guided reading or read alouds.
10. Task cards for the large collaborative map.
11. Teacher observation/recording sheet.
12. "Slap that Continent" game instructions.

All of my lessons and units are in the format of Jane Pollock’s GANAG method. This standards based lesson schema is for 21st century learners. This method is used to help teachers use a structure in their lessons that will give great results using formative assessment and feedback often.

Teaching map skills will be fun for both you and your students!

If you like projects, check out:

Elementary Architects - Design Blueprints and Explore Area

Mini Golf Course Geometry - A Math Project for Designing and Build

Party Planning Awesomeness - Design and Real Life Party

Housing Market Analysis - Math Project

The Float Challenge - A STEM Activity

The Wind Powered Car: A Cross Curricular STEM Project