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Lesson plan · Grade K · 30 minutes

Me on the Map

I can tell how my room is inside my home, my town, my state, my country and planet Earth, and point to land and water on a map.

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Standard
D2.Geo.1.K-2 C3
Shape
Explore first
Grouping
Whole class on the carpet.
You need
The tool on the big screen. A small box inside a bigger box, inside an even bigger box (nesting cups work too). Paper and crayons.
Tool
curioclass.org/tools/me-on-the-map/
  1. Hook4 min
  2. Explore12 min
  3. Make sense5 min
  4. Apply6 min
  5. Exit check3 min

Before class

  • Open Teacher setup in the panel, choose your state and type your town's name. On the state map, drag the star to your town.
  • Nest the boxes, with a small toy or picture of a child in the smallest one.

Hook 4 min

  1. Open the biggest box, then the next, then the smallest. "Where is our friend?" (In the little box, in the middle box, in the big box.)
  2. "We are like our friend. We live inside bigger and bigger places. Let's find out how big."

Explore 12 min

  1. Start in My room. "What do you see? Where is the bed?" Explain: a map shows a place looking down from above, like a bird.
  2. Press Zoom out. The room shrinks into a glowing box on the house. A child comes up and points to where the room is. Press Show where to check.
  3. Keep zooming out: street, town, state, country, continent, Earth. At each one, ask a child to find the glowing box.
  4. At Earth, say the whole chain together, pointing outward: "My room, my home, my street, my town, my state, my country, my continent, planet Earth!"
  5. Zoom back in, all the way home.

Make sense 5 min

  1. Go to the town picture and turn on Land or water? Children come up and tap. They hear "Land!" or "Water!"
  2. Do the same on Earth. "Is there more land or more water?" (More water.)
  3. "The tool's street is a storybook picture. How is our street the same? How is it different?"

Apply 6 min

Children draw three circles, one inside another. In the middle, they draw their home. In the next circle, their town. In the big one, the Earth (or the state, if they know it). Say it together as they finish.

Exit check 3 min

Ask: "Is our town inside our state, or is our state inside our town?" Children point a finger up for "town in state" and down for "state in town." Then three children say the chain from room to Earth.

Support and stretch

  • Support: use the nesting boxes again and say one place for each box.
  • Support: keep the chain short at first: room, home, town, Earth.
  • Stretch: use the ladder in the panel to jump to any level. "Where are we now? What is it inside?"
  • Stretch: learn the name of our state and our country and add them to the drawing.

Short on time

  • Zoom out from My room to Earth and back in (8 min).
  • Say the chain together (2 min).

How each button works is in the teacher notes. From Curio Class, free under CC BY 4.0: change it, print it, share it.