This book includes typical maps such as a neighbourhood map, but also maps that are less expected, including a map of a family (similar to a family tree), a map of a dog (like a diagram with labels), and, my favourite, a heart map!

I love sharing this book with my students in February and having them draw and paint or colour their own heart maps! Students can write about their heart maps, too. 

Kindergarten students might just write one sentence, or they could share their thoughts orally and you could type up what they have to say. 

For older students, I'd recommend this project as an opportunity to teach the "adding details" lesson from Adrienne Gear's Writing Power. Teach students that "because" is NOT the best detail word. It makes for robot writing, e.g., "I love candy because it is yummy. I love my mom because she is nice. I love swimming because it is fun," etc. Instead, encourage students to use the detail words "once/one time", "sometimes", "when", and "if". Using these power words, they can include interesting details like, "I love candy. Once, my grandmother sent me a big box of Easter candy all the way from Germany!" Or, "I love my mom. Sometimes, on Sundays, she makes pancakes shaped like animals and we eat them with whipped cream on top!" Or, "I love swimming. When I swim, I pretend I am a mermaid!" 

This project is a great way to connect with your students and find out more about what matters to them! 

This book charts the journey of a cat named Sam who travels through the neighbourhood once her human family members are sleeping. Like My Map Book, this book includes not only typical maps, like a map of Sam's route, but also more creative maps, including maps of the inside of Sam's body, the pond she visits, and a molecule of water inside the pond. 

After reading Mapping Sam, you can have your class work together to create their own community. I have to give a shoutout to Stella Araujo and Priscilla Lai, the Grade 2 teachers at Crofton School, who have done this lesson in their classrooms for years and generously shared the idea with me!

I'd recommend allocating at least 80 minutes for this lesson.

This is what you will need to prep in advance: 

1. Print off road pages from this pdf. 

2. Cut up some white envelope labels into small pieces.

These are the steps of the lesson: 

1. Read Mapping Sam.

2. Have each student think of a place that would meet a want or need in the community. As students brainstorm, make a list to keep track of what each kid has thought of. My most recent class thought of places including restaurants; natural spaces like forests and parks; toy stores (very important!); sports facilities like soccer parks, skating rinks, and swimming pools; a library; a movie theatre; and, of course, an ice cream store!

3. Give each student a road page. Tell them to draw the place they thought of, plus at least four other things (e.g., trees, stop signs, other buildings, bodies of water, etc.). 

4. Once all of the map sections are complete, have the students work as a group to categorize the types of places they've included and think of a symbol for each. For example, the restaurant symbol might be a knife and fork; the bank symbol might be a dollar sign; the sports facility symbol might be a soccer ball; etc.

5. Give each student one of the small pieces of white envelope label. Have them draw the symbol that goes with the place they thought of and stick it on their section of the map. One student can create a legend that shows what all the symbols mean. 

6. Have the class work as a group to come up with a name for their community. They could choose a name related to their division number, such as Ten Town if your class is Division 10 or 2HVille if your class is called 2H. Or they could come up with any other name of their choosing; my most recent classes chose the names Metro City and Rainbow Town! 

7. Put the map up as a display! 

I love this lesson because it is so low prep, yet so engaging and meaningful, touching on many important subjects from the Social Studies curriculum such as wants and needs, goods and services, and concepts in mapping. Have fun! 

This story is about a girl named Zoe whose family is immigrating because their home city has become unsafe. This is a great book to introduce the concept of immigration and prompt discussion about the different types of circumstances under which someone might immigrate.

I have to give full credit for the lesson idea to Adrienne Gear, who suggests having students create their own maps of good memories. More details on Adrienne's blog! I tried this with my tutoring students and they really enjoyed it. I'm hoping I'll get a chance to share this lesson with my Grades 2/3 class this coming year! 

This book starts by showing a child's home, then expands out to the street, city, country, and continent. 

I had my class work through a project based on this book using a booklet that I bought from Once Upon a Classroom. I bought the British Columbia version; there are also versions available for many other Canadian provinces as well as American states.  The booklet costs $5 and I found that it took about five hours of instructional time total to complete. A dollar per hour - not bad! 

I made slides that took the students through each page of the booklet step by step. We worked on it over the course of seven days of school, completing one page every day. If you buy the booklet and would like the slides to go with it, message me on Instagram (@amyhigginscreativeteaching) or send me an email! 

These books tie in well with the Grade 2 Social Studies topic of global communities. Students can use Venn diagrams to compare their own lives with the lives of other children around the world! I love the illustrations in these books and the simple, concrete examples of other lifestyles around the world that students can really connect to.