The Town Game
This is a wonderful activity for either the classroom or home. It helps children learn how to read a map, follow directions, and practice their reading.
Materials:
Provide a large piece of heavy-grade vinyl (thick enough that it lays flat but can still be rolled up like a rug). On this sheet the layout of a village is drawn, with streets, squares, traffic circles, streams, a lake, and so forth plainly marked with paint or a heavy magic marker. Each street, traffic circle, or town square is plainly labeled with a place name: Main Street, Oak Lane, Town Square, and so on. There should not be too many streets; five running vertically and five running horizontally are sufficient. At one corner of the sheet the outline of a large circular compass is drawn, and the notations and arrows for north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west, and northwest are clearly shown.
You will also need a large, easy-to-read compass. The compass will be placed in the circle of the drawn compass on the sheet, and the direction of north indicated on the sheet will be aligned with true north shown on the compass.
To complete the set, collect attractive village buildings, each clearly distinguishable from the other: school, church, town hall, white house with a green roof, red house with a white roof, and so forth. Trees and people made to the same scale can be included for the child to place as she wishes. (You can purchase model railroad structures and figures already made.)
Finally, prepare a set of cards with printed directions telling the child where to place each building on the map. According to the nature of your class, more than one set can be developed: a first set with simple directions ( “Place the church at the corner of Main Street and Oak Lane ”) and a second set with more complex directions ( “Place the church at the northeast corner of the intersection of Main Street and Oak Lane”).
The Goal:
The goal is to give your children increasingly sophisticated experience in reading and following written directions and to help them learn how to work with a map (in this case, to place the buildings on a large and simple map in reference to a street grid). This will also help to prepare children to be able to read more symbolic maps.
The Game:
- Bring the rolled-up map drawn on the heavy vinyl to a work area and unroll it.
- Bring the compass and set it down in the circle drawn in a corner of the map.
- Allow the needle of the compass to settle onto true north and note which direction this is within the room. (Ideally, children should already know about using a compass from the earlier lesson described in the text box on page 25.) Turn the entire map slowly until the printed arrow marked north on the map is pointing toward north as shown on the compass.
- Bring the buildings to the map and set them down on the tray next to it.
- Now bring over the cards with the simplest written directions for placing the buildings.
- Take a seat beside the child and begin by reintroducing her to the buildings and their names. (Ideally your child will already be familiar with these or similar buildings from earlier work.)
- Show your child the map and explain that this is a map of a little town. Indicate the streets and show her how their names are printed along each one. Read them together.
- Explain that when two streets come together, this is called an intersection.
- Point to the compass again and ask your child to show you which way is north on the map, which way is south, and so on.
- Explain that in this town “Streets run north and south, or they run east or west,” pointing the directions with your hand. Ask your child to show you a street that runs north and south, or one that runs east and west. Repeat the exercise. Then name a street and ask her to find it. Now ask her if it is a north/ south or an east/ west street?
- Now focus your child’s attention on the corners of the intersections while explaining, “Buildings can be placed on one of these four corners that you will find at every intersection. This is the northeast corner, because it is on the north side of Fern Street and on the east side of Park Avenue. (If your child has trouble with this concept, go back to finding streets and having the child indicate which is the north or south side of the street.)
- This is probably enough for the first lesson. Go on to the next when your child is interested. (You may continue if you sense her readiness.)
- When your child seems read for another lesson, take the first direction card from the set. Say, “These cards tell us where to place each building. Each card tells us where one building goes. Let’s read the first card together.” Read it and carry out the direction: “Place the school on the north side of the intersection of Main Street and Vine Road.”
- Continue until all buildings are placed; allowing your child to set out model trees and people as she wishes.
- When she can follow these simple directions, introduce a more complex set of directions.
Variations:
Use other buildings; prepare a more intricate map surface from Plaster of Paris or papier-mâché on a board with three-dimensional details and greater realism.
Extensions:
Work out a route for a toy car from one spot to another. Prepare cards giving the toy car directions: “Go two blocks and turn left. Head north for three blocks and stop. Where are you?”
This has been excerpted from The World in The Palm Of Her Hand by Tim Seldin. To purchase a copy, CLICK HERE.
Tomorrow’s Child/ January 2007/pg24
