How to help kids learn to read maps Part 2

There I was, sitting in our new 1985 Nissan Sentra, aged 22 and married all of twenty-four hours. I was full of optimism and giddy enthusiasm. Mike was driving, and I held the map. Full of complicated folds and teeny tiny lines, it was a puzzle to figure out. Thankfully, I could do it-because somewhere along the line, I’d learned to read a map. We made it all the way to our North Carolina honeymoon, and thirty-eight years later, I still get excited about road trips with my husband-- and reading maps.

You never know when maps will come in handy on an adventure, so it’s important to help your kids learn how to read them. Besides that, maps can aid kids in developing a mental picture of their place in the world, be it in their home, church, city, or country.

Today’s picture book about maps, Footsteps on the Map, by Barbara Kerley, illustrated by Osaka Drachkovska, is interesting because it tells of two kids starting at different places and meeting in the middle.

That’s a fun concept to begin with, but I also chose this book to highlight because of the mixed media artwork. Notice how the artist combines cut photographs with painting/drawing. At the bottom of each page as the travellers journey towards each other, there are simple drawings of what they see along the way. Words on each page are short and rhyming.

Are you ready to help your kids learn to create and read a map?

• Start by reading the book Footsteps on the Map.
• Provide kids with a clipboard, some paper, and something to draw with.
• Go on a walk, stopping to let your kids draw something they see along the way. It can be whatever they want--for example, a flower, a mailbox, a tree.

When you get home, here are some options:

1. They can number the things they drew in order
2. They can draw a dotted line from one thing to the next
3. They can add more details and color to their map
4. They make their map into an imaginary country, re-naming things on their map and making it into a story
5. They could label different parts of their map
6. They could create a collage of their map, cutting and gluing pictures from a catalog or magazine

I hope your mapmaking adventure leads your kids further into loving books and creativity this week-Happy adventuring!

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