Brief Description Objectives Materials and Resources Activity Description Internet Resources

• Grade level: Upper Elementary

• Subject Area: Math, Social Studies

Brief Description

    Students use Web and other resources to create maps of either the site of their day trip, their final destination, the entire trip, or some combination of these.
Objectives

    Students will:

• 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

• 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 take a look at some of the places they "visited" on their trip and then create maps using the addresses of some of these places.

• Have students use the Internet-generated maps, as well as the U.S. road and city maps and atlases to help them draw their own maps of the places they have seen.

• Discuss with the students whether or not using these maps helped them understand how they would get around in the city or town they chose if they visited it in person.

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.

Back to Destination: Anywhere Unit Lesson Plans