As an extension of a fairy tale unit, or after reading Little Red Riding Hood, students will plan and create a map with a safe path for Little Red to outsmart The Big Bad Wolf and get to Grandma’s house safely. The students will view a map grid of the forest with spaces where The Wolf may be lurking. They must create a safe path and use BeeBots, Dash, Sphero or another robot to follow the path. If no robots are available, it can be done as an unplugged activity.

In this lesson, students will review cardinal directions and/or positional words when giving directions to a partner on how to navigate from one marked square and another on a paper grid sheet.

In this lesson, students use maps to explore the US and/or their local region. Then they will draw their state, its neighbors and indicate notable landforms as if they were viewing them from the window of an airplane.

In this lesson, sudents will play continent and ocean games to learn more about maps, globes and the world.

This inquiry leads students through an investigation of maps and spatial representation, exploring how and why we depict the physical world the way we do on maps. The compelling question "Can my life fit on a map?" encourages students to consider our ability to represent real-world places on a map. In doing so, students explore the meaning and purpose of maps, the tools that help us represent places, the purposes of those tools, and how we use those tools to read and make maps. This inquiry provides a foundation for students to develop their geographic reasoning and map literacy, both of which are critical to understandind how humans interact with geography and geographic features across time and space.

Students listen to a poem that uses cardinal directions. They use a compass rose to help describe locations of places on a world map.

Students explore a map of a community. Students use the map to begin to learn spatial concepts such as identity, location, and symbols.

In this lesson, students will play a variety of games and activities to understand Cardinal directions. Students will use geographic tools to demonstrate how symbols and models are used to represent features of the school, the neighborhood, and the real world.

Students learn to identify cardinal directions using their own classroom, other locations in and near school, and maps and globes. Then they discuss differences in temperature due to location.

Students identify a globe as a model of the Earth. They interact with maps and globes to locate land masses (continents) and oceans.

The Gingerbread Market is Project-Based Learning for Social Studies Economics. Students learn what it means to be a consumer and a producer by supplying goods and services for a donation. All earnings are donated to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the American Cancer Society.

In this lesson, students identify a globe as a model of the Earth. They interact with maps and globes to locate land masses (continents) and oceans.

This lesson will address the physical and human characteristics of the local community. Students will build geographic vocabulary as well as use map skills.

This Blended Learning Unit is designed to intentionally integrate technology into each lesson while maintaining the integrity of a Social Studies unit created by Oakland Schools, Unit 3: How Do We Learn About Places. The 30-45 minute lessons are structured so the classroom teacher can balance whole group instruction (Face to Face) with technology (Online) to enhance or provide new learning.  Academic Vocabulary is a school initiative in the district this unit was created for, so this is also integrated throughout the unit.  This blended unit was designed for students to use individual iPads, but other devices could be used as well.

In this lesson, students will be able to use a compass to identify the cardinal directions, identify the North and South Poles, identify Utah on a variety of maps, and identify the United States on a map or globe.

Students navigate a map of a local mall, find the places there that are most important to them, and discuss what places are important to other people.

In this lesson, students learn that picture symbols can be used to express ideas.

In this lesson, students learn the definition of a map legend, identify the symbols for cities, and locate specific cities on a United States map.

This resource contains lyrics to How to Read a Map to help students understand how to read a map. Click on the Listen button to hear the melody of the song.