Maps are invaluable tools that help us navigate our world, connect us with neighbors, link us to our past, situate our stories, and inspire us. Maps can be spatial, temporal, linear, and three dimensional. They can be based on memory, they can be impressions, or they can represent exact dimensions. Creating and sharing maps is as important as learning to read maps.
Regardless of the array of maps we might share with our children, maps teach them to understand and navigate the world they live in.
This week we’re posting two lesson plans. The first is a memory mapping exercise created by Half-Pint Prairie, a student organization at University of Texas at Austin, that is creating lesson plans featuring the prairie landscape that they built on the UT campus. Half-Pint Prairie lessons are available on Google Classroom.
The second is a mapping exercise that allows students to view their environments from the perspective of pollinators.
We hope you enjoy these excursions into the art of map making.
Memory Mapping
To access the Memory Mapping activity, go to Google Classroom and join the class using the class code q57zsi4.
Pollinators and Pollinator Gardens
Pollinators need food, water, and shelter. We can make our environment pollinator friendly by planting flowers in groups to keep pollinators safe, making sure there are sources of water, providing shelters like hives, and leaving areas of soil uncovered for ground-nesting insects. This lesson teaches students about pollinators and creating pollinator friendly spaces.