TITLE:  FINDING YOUR SPOT IN THE WORLD

AUTHOR:  Janet Smith ;Midway Intermediate School
         Highline School District, Seattle, WA

GRADE LEVEL:   4th through 8th

OVERVIEW(s):  How better to introduce students to maps,
location and movement than to see exactly where their house
is located and where their ancestors have lived.  This
activity does that.

PURPOSE:  It is important for children to understand how
movement of people brings ideas and changes into a country
or neighborhood. Using your own family personalizes the
process and makes it real.  This is an opener activity to
help connect movement and location.

OBJECTIVE(s):
  1) become familiar with local surrounding areas
  2) use of Thomas Brothers maps
  3) use directions on a map
  4) find and label a specific address on a map
  5) locate countries in the world
  6) explain other cultures

RESOURCES/MATERIALS:
  1) picture of the world from space
  2) world map
  3) United States map
  4) state map
  5) county map
  6) city map
  7) Thomas Brothers map of your area
  8) construction paper and pin for flag
  9) yarn

ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:
1)  At the beginning of the school year have a bulletin
    board set up with a picture of the world from space,
    a world map, a United States map, a state map, a
    county map and a city map.
2)  Discuss where they are in this series of pictures and
    the idea of a specific location.
3)  Have students ask at home where ancestors had lived
    and when and why they came to the United States.
    This could be expanded as far as you wish.
4)  A whole group, using the Thomas Brothers map, locate
    several community places--- the school, library,
    park, etc.
5)  Work in groups with a Thomas Brothers map to locate
    where each student's house is located.
6)  Make a small flag and pin it to the spot on the map
    where their house is.
7)  Put yarn from their house to a country of one of
    their ancestors.
8)  This can go on to 1) graph the results of where
    ancestors lived 2) study the country and customs of
    their ancestors 3) find Christmas customs from that
    country.

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER:
This is a lead into studying multicultural literature,
movement of people and ideas, or an understanding of your
neighborhood.  It isn't all tied together, in fact it is an
opening exercise to many varied possibilities and at the
same time is an exercise in using maps of different kinds to
find specific information.