Grade Level 2

Lesson Title: Using Grids

Suggested Time Period: 4 days

Framework/Standards Connection and Geography Theme/Standards:

2.2 Students demonstrate map skills by describing the absolute and relative locations of people, places, and environments by:

1. locating on a simple letter-number grid system the specific locations and geographic features in their neighborhood or community (e.g., map the classroom, the school)

Geography Theme:

Location

Focus Question(s):

1. Where is our school located related to other places in our neighborhood?
2. Where are key features (schools, churches, homes, etc.) of our neighborhood located?

Outcomes:

Students will create a classroom map and locate classroom objects on the map using a grid.

Students will locate key features on a neighborhood map using grid coordinates.

Primary Sources/Literature:

neighborhood map

Activities:

1. Review what a map is and how they are helpful to people (to locate things more quickly, to get accurate directions). Show students a map of the school neighborhood on a large sheet of butcher paper or on an overhead. (Community maps can be purchased from Thomas Bros.) Photocopy a class set (one for each student) and make a simple letter-number grid with a ruler, with capital letters written in a vertical column on the left, and numbers written across the top, one inch apart or at equal intervals.

2. Example:

1 2 3 4 5

A

B

C

D

Explain to students that grids help us find things on maps more easily. For about five or six features on the map, have the students find their “absolute locations”, the specific sites represented by the letter-number indicators. e.g. school might be at C-3, Pizza Hut at B-5. To help students find the grid locations, they can use their pencils or rulers to line up and down and straight across on the map to note where they meet. Another way, is to run off the maps on stiff paper and use two loops of yarn in horizontal and vertical directions. Call out the coordinates and when the students line up the yarn strings, they can easily see the absolute location of where the two cross.

3. Give the address of the school and show its location on the map. Have the students share their home street addresses. On the map, find a couple of students’ homes which are close to the school. Not all of the students homes will be shown on the map probably. Near the school and far from the school are “relative location” terms, where a place is in relationship to other places. Practice comparing where the features on the neighborhood map are located with the grid system and with each other. Have students write summary sentences about the relative location of various places in their neighborhood. e.g., The school is next to the park.

4. Have students create a classroom map complete with grid. Have them formulate a list of five location questions about various objects on the map. The questions should require a grid coordinate answer. e.g. Question: Where is the teacher’s desk located? Answer: G-6 Have students exchange maps and questions with a partner and write responses to each other’s questions. Upon completion, have the partners check the each other’s responses for accuracy.

Assessment:

Using the neighborhood maps, ask students the absolute locations of specific features and have them write the grid coordinates. Also, ask them about relative locations of specific features on the map.

e.g. What is the location of our school? Where is McDonald’s? (absolute location) Which is closer to the school, McDonald’s or the post office? (relative location)

Bibliography:

Renfrew, Dr. Melanie and Dr. Priscilla Porter, Standard 2: Expanding Map Skills From Neighborhood To the World. Carson, Calif. 1998