Me on the Map

It's been a busy couple of weeks!  My kiddos and I are settling in and settling down. Our Social Studies focus at the beginning of the year is on communities and we've been discussing the fact that we are all citizens of many communities, from our planet down to our classroom community.  One of  my favorite books to include is Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney.

There are lots of wonderful activities out there to do with this book and I usually use some really cute things from ClutterFree Classroom's Me on the Map unit. This year I thought I'd change it up a little and I adapted it a bit. We made these part to whole brace maps...which led to a whole other discussion of what a map can represent.  We talked about how different maps are intended for locating, documenting, organizing, and representing  physical information as well as thinking, and how we can use each of them.  The kids drew the Earth and added  illustrations.  I took pictures of everyone (Which they LOVED!!  Little do they know that we'll be doing lots of that! I love to incorporate pictures of them into their work.  I think it's yet another way for them to connect and feel ownership of what they have learned.) then they cut the pictures out and added themselves to their map!

Have a great Sunday!