Name: Globe and Map Skills Activity Packet and Worksheets
SKU: 622cf6015b294f4dd9889b5a
Price: 39.99 USD
Availability: InStock

About this resource

What's inside this resource

Globes and maps are introduced through short informational passages — Mapping the World, Finding Your Way, Fun with Globes, Drawing Maps, Parts of a Map, The Compass Rose, Latitude and Longitude, and Measuring on Maps — each paired with its own reading-response worksheet. Practical exercises follow: a United States-in-the-world map exercise using the equator, prime meridian, and four cardinal directions; a neighborhood-mapping task; and a town-center street map for cardinal-direction practice. A set of front-and-back vocabulary cards defines twelve map terms, from globe and prime meridian to cartography and legend, and the packet closes with a 'Cartographer Application' where students explain what kind of maps they would like to draw and why.

Product description

From the author

This " Globe and Map Skills Activity Packet and Worksheets " is no prep required - so the packet is great as printable worksheets for a map skills unit or extra work or sub plans or to enhance a literacy or math unit.

Many of these activities are options for kids at all levels between Grades 2 and 5. Please note that not all activities in this packet will meet your class' particular levels, but there should be enough variation in the resources from your high flyers to those that are more challenged.

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Explain the difference between a globe and a map, including one advantage and one disadvantage of each.
Use the four cardinal directions and a compass rose to describe location and direction on a map.
Identify latitude, longitude, the prime meridian, and the equator on a map or globe.
Define key map vocabulary terms such as legend, scale, cartography, and intermediate points.

Teaching tips

Pair each reading passage with its matching reading-response worksheet right after reading it, since the packet is built as eight passage-and-response pairs rather than one long reading followed by questions.
Print the vocabulary cards double-sided so the term and definition stay matched (pages 40-43), since each card's definition is printed on a separate 'back' page aligned to the same position as its term.
Use the Cartographer Application (page 50) as a fun wrap-up after the vocabulary and skills sections, since it asks students to apply what they've learned to their own imagined map-making career.

Skills covered

Globe-vs-map comparison — students name an advantage and disadvantage of each tool after reading 'Mapping the World' (pages 2-3).
Cardinal direction and compass use — students apply north/east/south/west and the compass rose to a town-center map (pages 4, 13, 33).
Latitude/longitude and hemisphere identification — students read about the prime meridian, equator, and northern/southern hemispheres (page 18).
Map vocabulary — students match twelve terms (globe, latitude, longitude, prime meridian, equator, hemispheres, cardinal points, compass rose, legend, cartography, scale, weather/road map) to their definitions (pages 40-43).

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

How does the town-center map exercise differ from the neighborhood-mapping task?

The town-center exercise (page 33) gives students a pre-drawn street map with named streets to practice reading, while the neighborhood task (page 30) asks students to draw their own map from scratch.

What does the 'Cartographer Application' ask students to do?

Students answer why they'd want to be a cartographer and what kind of maps they would choose to draw, turning the packet's map-skills content into a short personal reflection.