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Artfully Mapping Our Community

Students learn map-reading skills as they create colorful abstract art that represents their community.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

  • Local Map
  • Tissues or Tissue Paper

Steps

  • Step 1

    Read a book such as "The Boy Who Loved Maps" by Kari Allen and G. Brian Karas. Discuss why maps are used and what the various icons symbolize on maps. Note which way is north, south, east, and west. You could point out a common use of mapping by searching for your school on Google Earth or exploring other areas on a map platform.

  • Step 2

    Display a map of your community (online or on a paper map). Ask students to identify roads, highways, parks, water, and buildings in the area. Have students choose an area or neighborhood to sketch, one that might include intersecting roads, town squares, other areas that they could fill in with color to create a work of art. Print an image or create a digital PDF of the section of the map they choose.

  • Step 3

    Have them sketch the area in a light color on dark construction paper. Then have them go over the lines with glue which will form firm barriers when dry. After the glue dries have students color the areas with chalk. They can experiment with various blending techniques such as chalk rub-outs (with a tissue or fingertip) or combine two or more complementary colors in an area. You might display a color wheel to show complementary colors.

  • Step 4

    When students have completed their art it can be displayed next to the original map section that inspired the creation.

Standards

SS: People, Places, and Environments: Use maps, globes, and other geographic tools. Demonstrate understanding of the use and misuse of the environment and the relationship between human populations and the physical world.

ARTS: Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.

ARTS: Apply knowledge of available resources, tools, and technologies to investigate personal ideas through the artmaking and performance process.

Adaptations

Talk about the urban planning profession. People who work in this field decide how to best use space by taking into consideration sustainability, the environment, natural resources, and the social and economical impacts of development in the area. Challenge students to think of areas in the community that they might modify and why their suggestion would be an improvement.

Ask students to propose and map out a new development in the community. If there were an area of undeveloped land, what might they turn it into? Ask them to design and map out this new space and to articulate the impact on the community. Use icons to designate structures, roads, and waterways, and label the cardinal directions.