Map is more than just an "ap" word!

In social studies, we have been learning all about families. As part of this unit, all of the students completed their family heritage posters. We used these posters as group discussions to launch our study of maps. First we looked at a map of the world and found all of the countries that our families originally came from. The children loved to see who their "neighbors" were in the world!

We learned that maps are pictures that help us to find things. We learned the term "birds eye view" because maps usually are pictures taken from high above in the sky, just the way a bird might see it!

We also created our own maps! First we discussed how to create a map of our classroom. The children were so excited about this that our map actually showed quite a bit of details! 

We then played a game of "map hide and seek!" Each kindergartener got a turn to "hide" in a spot in our room, and a partner would then have to "seek" or find where they were on our classroom map!