Welcome back for another peak at my Texas History INB! If you would like to see how I start the year with our INBs please check out my post on
Setting Up Our INBs.
This week I am back to talk about the INB entries that we make regarding maps.
Maps and map skills are one of those topics that we can never seem to do enough of. Every year we start out with them, but then it tends to kind of fall away until the next year. By starting the year with a really strong unit on maps and map skills with reference materials added to students' INBs they will have a solid foundation to refer to throughout the year!
I like to start with this
Types of Maps Fold-Up, because so many students don't even recognize that there are multiple types of maps. As we fill out information on each type of map I show them on those giant roll-up map that we have in the classroom along with more examples that can be found on the internet.
This website has some great information and examples of different types of maps.
From there I start from a global standpoint and move gradually to more local. On our
world map we label the continents and oceans as well as have a healthy discussion about cardinal and ordinate directions along with the compass rose.
I love to have students try and come up with an acronym, rhyme, song or rap that will help them to remember the continents and oceans. There are a few good ones on YouTube, but I always love my students come up with much more!
Next up is a
Map of the United States. While I would love for my fourth graders to know all fifty states I also live in the real world. Of course we label Texas since that is where we live, and we also label the states that share a border with Texas in addition to the states that students have visited or lived. This usually ends up with about fifteen states which is a good start in my book.
After that we move onto a map of
Texas. On here we label Austin, the city we are in, and other major cities from across the state. This usually blows my students' minds, because they think that San Antonio is another state, not just a city in Texas.
I have to stifle a few laughs during this time. I know they don't know any better, but the misconceptions are beyond amusing.
Finally we move on to
comparing a country, state, and city. Some years I use this as an assessment, but most years we complete this fold-up together including titles, government, and structural differences.
After these basic concepts we also complete
Population and Precipitation Maps as well as a variety of map skills activities that can be found in
this bundle.
For the next edition of a look into my Texas History INB I'll be looking at what we do for Texas Regions in our INBs.
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