Geography Quote and Happenings

Funny quote from today's learning: 

"We know that the world is...."

"Round!!!!"

"Yes!" (Miss Snyder shows kids the "world" she made)

"But maps are...."

"Blue!!!"

Where did that come from? Keep reading to learn why they said "blue"...
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 Today we talked about how maps are flat, but in real life, our world is round.

To show kids how maps are visualized by cartographers (map makers), I started with the world. The nice round, orange world. (Feel free to fully enjoy that quote now! ;) )

Next? I peeled the orange right before their eyes and laid it out flat under our document camera.

Voila! Our world was changed from a "globe" to a map!

Next we learned a new reading strategy "Using Prior Knowledge to Make Connections." It's now on our CAFE menu of strategies. We used what we knew about maps and then read a book about them. We learned that explorers thought the world was flat, but then discovered it was round because they explored it and never fell off the edge. We even learned about ancient maps that were made with twigs and reeds.

We are also learning the difference between streets, towns, and states. We talked about how streets are the smallest, then towns, then states. We used Google Earth to move from the world view to continent to country, state, town, and finally street. It's such a neat resource and the kids love it! In these last two pictures, you can see what we're using to remember how we "fit" in our street which "fits" in the town...and so on!

One of the grade level expectations for second grade geography is writing your name and address. Help your child remember his/her address and practice writing it! We'll do more work at school with addresses and geography so stay tuned.... :)

Happy Mapping! - Miss Snyder