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Map and Compass Exercises
Late last winter, the children and I joined in with a local homeschool nature group. We attended a couple of indoor classes, and then started meeting outdoors for hikes, water studies, flower identification, that sort of thing. Our fearless leader became pregnant with her fourth child and as the months have grown closer to the impending birth, we have seen and heard less from her. Two other moms decided to turn us into 4-H affiliated group. We were already doing 4-H type activities and this would look good on the kids transcripts. Today was our first meeting and the two leaders set up a map and compass exercise for us. All of the parents participated, but this was a nice guideline.
Since it went so well and the children had so much fun (except Jack who felt like this was old hat for him) I thought I would share the guidelines the two mom's set up for us. That way you can do it with your young'uns.
(we split into groups of 2-3 children and 1 grown-up).
We began by looking at state maps and discussing the key, compass rose and why it is important to know which way is North so we can orient with the map. We could have spent two hours on this...the kids were fascinated with finding all of the key symbols and figuring out what they meant and of course different maps have different symbols. Ours was of the state of Washington and we found the symbols for entry points. Something I wasn't familiar with. We talked about cities in relation to one another (east, west, etc). We measured distances using the key scale and in general had a good time. We talked about how knowing which way is North can save your life if you are lost in the woods with only a map and a compass. (Each of the kids was given a small clip on compass to use).
Then we made maps of places we knew or imaginary places we dreamed about. Then we talked about things on our maps in relation to one another using our maps. I drew a map of my Dad's cabin and the road leading to it and my daughter figured it out, so I must have done okay. We also had the children make keys denoting directions, roads, cities, water, etc.
Then we figured out how to use our compasses.
Then we went outside. We had string marked at 5 feet intervals and we had grid paper, compasses, stickers and pencils. We made a scale map using these items. Each 5 foot interval stood for a grid on the grid paper. The kids had a blast. The older kids focused more on using their compasses and such while the younger kids focused more on relating objects to each other. We had stickers they could use to represent things such as trees and explained that tempororary objects (like cars) wouldn't be on the maps.
All in all, it was great fun and we learned some things! Hope it will be useful to you as well!
sounds wonderful, interesting and very educational
well done
I really want to find a group like this! I belong to a homeschool group and a co-op, but nothing nature-oriented! I think I will have to find something!
Sherry
PowerPoint Presentations on “LAND NAVIGATION with MAP and LENSATIC COMPASS”. The PowerPoint lessons are free and informative and can be used to teach yourself and others in the knowledge of LAND NAVIGATION with MAP and LENSATIC COMPASS.
Visit www.landnavigation.org
The lessons can be used by instructors and edited to meet your Land Navigation training needs.
Very Respectfully,
Jimmy Dosher
(author of website)
