| Activity: Location Is Everything! |
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Children use all of their senses to learn about the world. Objects that they can touch, see, smell, taste, and hear help them understand the link between a model (such as a map) and the real thing.
- Put together puzzles of
the United States or the world. By touching and looking at the puzzle
pieces, they can better
understand where one place is located in relation to others.
- Use pictures from books
and magazines to help your children associate geographic terms with visual
images. A picture of a desert can stimulate conversation about the features
of a desert--dry and barren. Talk about many different places and imagine
what it would be like to visit them.
- Make a three-dimensional
map of your home or neighborhood using milk cartons for buildings. Draw a
map of the block on a piece of cardboard, then cut up the cartons (or any
other three-dimensional item) and use them to represent buildings. Use
bottle tops or smaller boxes to add interest to the map, but try to keep the
scale relationships fairly accurate (e.g., 2 feet on the map equals 1 city
block).
- Use popular board games
like "Game of the States'' or "Trip Around the World" to
teach your children about location, commerce, transportation, and the
relationships among different countries and areas of the world. Some of
these games may be available at public libraries.
- Make a globe out of papier-mâché using strips of old newspaper and a paste made from flour and water. In doing this, children will better understand the differences between a flat map and a globe.
Directions
Make the paste by mixing 1 part flour with 2 parts water. Tear Newspaper strips about 1 inch wide and 3 inches long. Blow up a balloon and tie it. Dip the strips into the paste and wrap the balloon as smoothly as possible with one layer of the papier-mâché strips. Then wrap it again with three more layers; at this stage, try using the papier-mâché to make models of mountains and valleys. Let the wrapped balloon dry for at least 24 hours. Then using poster or tempera paints, paint the continents and oceans.
~Table
of Contents~
~Location~Place~Relationships~Movement~Regions~
~Glossary~
Courtesy of Education Publications Center
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