Brief Description Objectives Materials and Resources Activity Description Internet Resources

• Grade level: Upper Elementary

• Subject Area: Math, Social Studies

Brief Description

    Students use atlases, maps, and Web resources to generate and examine maps of their own neighborhoods. This activity will serve as background for the map-reading tasks in the next lessons.
Objectives

    Students will:

• Develop a context for reading maps by examining a familiar area: their own neighborhood.
• Gain practice reading maps.
• Gain practice creating maps.

Materials and Resources

    In developing our lessons and activities, we made some assumptions about the hardware and software that would be available in the classroom for teachers who visit the LETSNet Website. We assume that teachers using our Internet-based lessons or activities have a computer with the necessary hardware components (mouse, keyboard, and monitor) as well as a World Wide Web browser. In the section below, we specify any "special" hardware or software requirements for a lesson or activity (in addition to those described above) and the level of Internet access required to do the activity.

1. Special hardware requirements: None.
2. Special software requirements: None.
3. Classroom materials: Current United States road and city maps and atlases; paper and colored pencils, markers or crayons.
4. Internet access: A medium-speed or higher connection.

Activity Description

• Discuss with the students the purpose of maps and map reading. Ask them what they normally do when they or their parents want to get from one place to another or want to know where one place is in relation to another. Ask them to ask their parents if they use maps.

• The Internet sites listed (see Internet Resources below) enable users to type in a street address and then view a map of the vicinity of that address. Using these sites, have students type in their own addresses to generate a map of their surrounding neighborhoods.

• Have students use the Internet-generated maps, the U.S. road and city maps and atlases, and their own knowledge about where they live to help them draw their own maps of their neighborhoods. They can add markers indicating their own homes, friends' homes, favorite stores, etc.

• Have the students take their parents on a trip around their neighborhoods to try out their maps and to see what places or streets they might have forgotten to include.

Internet Resources

• Yahoo! Maps
  [http://maps.yahoo.com/yahoo/]
  Users can enter the street address or zip code of a site of choice and create a map of the surrounding area.

• Geocities--Create a Map with Vicinity!
  [http://www.proximus.com/geocities/]
  This site creates maps of cities and towns according to the parameters specified by the user.

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