Continents, Maps, and Globes... Oh, My!

My weekends have been full of Common Core math training, and then Kindergarten readiness testing this past weekend.  We asked for parents to give us their e-mail addresses, and we are e-mailing them the "Getting Ready for Kindergarten" pack I made.  The parents were really excited to help their kiddos get ready for kindergarten.  I'm really excited to see the growth.  If you would like more info about that awesome pack, check out the post.

In my free time (lol), I have been working on a unit that introduces maps, globes, and the continents.  Arizona kindergarten standards for maps and globes include:

• Recognize the differences between maps and globes.
• Construct maps of a familiar place (e.g., classroom, bedroom, playground, neighborhood).
• Identify land and water on maps, illustrations, images and globes.
• Locate continents and oceans on a map or globe.

I designed my unit with these standards in mind.

There are anchor charts on all of the continents, oceans, and information on the difference between maps and globes.  My printer has been acting funny lately, so I just open my files and show them using my document camera (which is connected to my computer).  The kids really get to see what is on the page, I save ink, and I don't have to worry about trying to find the charts next year.  :)  It's a win-win-win.

I made three easy readers to go with the unit.

"Maps and Globes" talks about the difference between maps and globes.

"I Can Find the Continents" has the students locate and color the various continents and the ocean.

"I Can Find the Globe" has the students cut and paste little globes while practicing spatial relationships.

There are three main worksheets.

There is a worksheet (which has the same information as the "I Can Find the Continents" easy reader) that has the students locate and color the continents and ocean.

There are a few versions of the sheets where students make a map of a familiar place.

There are a few versions of the sheets where students describe locations based on other locations.  One version uses cardinal directions, and the other uses kinder friendly words such as "to the left of".

I made this craft with options.  I love options, and it drives me nuts when I find an activity I like, but it's not exactly what I want.  I have different verbiage for our Canadian friends (province instead of state), and I have several different versions of the "our city" including "our town", "our township", and others. 

 I am also all about throwing colored paper through the copier, so I made three different options.

One version has the printed circles with the clip art on them (the earth picture is the example).  The benefit would be there is no extra cutting required after the circle is cut.  Each state is represented with its own clip art state in either version with the clip art.  

The second version requires you to print the circle on colored paper, and then the clip art is on a separate sheet that can be printed on white paper.  This is the version that is shown in the picture above.

The third version has blank boxes for the kids to write and draw themselves.

So, in celebration of finishing this unit, I am giving the "I Can Be a Cartographer" page as a freebie. 

Click here to download.

If you are interested in purchasing this pack, please visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store 

or my Teachers Notebook store.

Have a GREAT week!