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Loading... Me on the Map (original 1996; edition 2018)by Joan Sweeney (Author)This book is a fun introduction to maps and geography. Ayoung girl shows readers herself on a map of her room, her room on the map of her house, her house on the map of her street--all the way to her country on a map of the world. This book would be useful for a social studies class when introducing maps. This is a great place to begin teaching what a map is and where you are in the world. It could also be a super place to show how to make your own map. The simple, direct text is reinforced by the cute, to-the-point illustrations. I would have loved to use a small group set of this book when I was teaching. Before I begin, let me say that my students love maps. We started the year putting colored push-pins on a world map, to mark the different countries we are from. Later we did a Social Studies activity where we started off with a map of the continents. We then went to a map of the United States, then Louisiana, then Jefferson, and then finally a Google map of our school! I shared this book last Thursday, before beginning a lesson. The culminating activity was to complete a map (drawn and labeled by each student). We now have some awesome maps on our bulletin board. One child seemed to be copying the book, because he chose to draw his room. Another student pointed this out to me. I showed him how the end result was indeed very different from the little girl in the book. The student actually had three other kids sharing his room, and it was sort of empty with just a lot of kids in a bed and a baby playing on the floor. Other students made maps of their countries. One girl drew her grandma's backyard, with her grandma cooking pupusas outside on the comal. In my opinion, this book left much to be desired. However, my students loved it! This was a very helpful book in rolling out state social studies standards on maps and where children live. The progression from smaller to bigger areas that can be mapped allowed for a guided classroom discussion of the students' own streets, neighborhoods, city, state, and country. The illustrations for supported the text and provided several different examples of important map features. The only drawback with the maps included in the book was that some of the maps had such detailed symbols that the maps did not look much different than the authors rendition of the real world in the book, and this led to some confusion with my students. Nonetheless, an excellent introduction to maps and where people live. This informational book teaches children about basic map skills. Starting with a map of a room, readers zoom out to a map of a street, map of a town, map of a state, map of a country, map of a continent, map of the world, map of the Earth and then back again. Teaching Connections: Social Studies curriculum connections, non-fiction text features, designing your own Me on a Map Website Resources: Me On the Map Lesson Plans - http://www.uen.org/core/displayLessonPlans.do?courseNumber=6020&standardId=3... A young girl shows readers herself on a map of her room, her room on the map of her house, her house on the map of her street--all the way to her country on a map of the world. Once the reader is familiar with the maps, she demonstrates how readers can find their own country, state, and town--all the way back to their room--on each colorful map. Maybe this is a good book for some kindergarteners about our place in the world, maps and how to use them, but my five year old found it too simple to hold his interest. Curiously though, he really liked [b:Follow That Map!|6357079|Follow That Map! A First Look at Mapping Skills|Scot Ritchie|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347778700s/6357079.jpg|6543802], another book which would pair well with [b:Me on the Map|534716|Me on the Map|Joan Sweeney|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320539683s/534716.jpg|522214] but which has quiz like activities to keep you busy while you read through it. This is a great book for learning about the concept of location. In her book, author Joan Sweeney has a young girl show a map of her bedroom, which expands into a map of her house, her neighborhood, her town, her country, her continent, and ends up with a drawing of the world. Illustrator Annette Cable clearly demonstrates the differences between real places such as a bedroom and a map of the same bedroom. Sweeney's book teaches about symbols and may inspire students to draw their own maps! This is a great example of a realistic fiction picture book. This a great example because it tells the story of this little girl who is exploring how to use maps and where she fits on a map. It goes from her room in the house all the way to the planet Earth in regards to the universe. Age Appropriateness: primary Media: tempra paint |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)912.014History & geography Geography & travel Maps and plans of surface of earth and of extraterrestrial worlds modified standard subdivisions Philosophyand theory; map reading Map readingLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Age: 3-5 years
Source: Pierce College Library ( )