Teaching Kids Art Through Picture Books

Have you ever noticed those pretty circleish-star shapes with the directions on them in the corner of a flat map? They are called compass roses. They can be very elaborate or simple, but they help orient the reader of the map to which direction places exist in relationship to each other. The concept of direction can be described to kids as the relationship of one object to another. On a flat map or a globe, you can show them north, south, east, and west. The symbol on a map that reminds us of these cardinal directions is called a compass rose.

The first decorated compass rose, according to Wikipedia, was found on a map in 1375 by cartographer Abraham Cresques. 

Help your child draw a beautiful decorated compass rose by reading a story first to introduce them to the idea. 

The Boy Who Loved Maps, by Kari Allen and G. Brian Karas, is a story about an imaginative boy and his friend who worked together to create the perfect map. I love this line from the book: “He made maps of the far...