Building Skills by Exploring Maps

Maps hold the promise of an adventure. And children really want to know how to read them. At the same time, they still need a lot of practice with the basic map skills of using latitude and longitude, locating places on a grid, estimating distances using scale, using indexes, and understanding common map symbols. This series uses age-appropriate maps to provide opportunities to practice these skills. Background information at the top of each page provides either more information about a map skill or interesting facts about the subject of the map.

The wonderful thing about teaching children map skills is that they really want to know how to read maps. To children, maps are secret codes. Maps are keys to unknown places. Maps hold the promise of an adventure.

Map Skills: Grade 3 begins with maps that are still largely representational. The learning standards at the third-grade level are typically very simple. Third graders must:

• understand that maps are representational
• identify geographical features on a map
• identify, locate, and use map title, map key, compass rose, lines and borders, roads and routes, and objects and symbol
• use grid systems to locate communities

Third graders must know how to use the compass rose and the scale and how to find places on a grid. The magic in a map is the possibility of new adventures. Conveniently, the skills covered in Map Skills: Grade 3 also transfer well to a standardized-testing situation.