Teachers and students in the Lower School are using maps as a theme to draw together a variety of learning experiences in the classroom.
"This particular theme gives students at every grade level a comfortable entry point of study. Mapping is used daily, whether in geography/social studies, language arts, travel, even in our math curriculum," said third-grade teacher Joyce Carrasco, one of a number of Lower School teachers taking part in the project.
"I begin my introduction to the subject by looking at a wide variety maps," Carrasco said. "I use a satellite map of the earth, as well as pull-down maps, globes, and atlas maps. I've found that third-graders have a insatiable thirst for understanding how maps are drawn."
The students look at materials used by prehistoric people such as cave drawings and sticks used for markings, then move on to the guesswork that early explorers used to create their maps.
As students look at ancient maps in atlases, Carrasco shows them the intricate and ornate compass roses that were used to plot the cardinal directions. "I then give the children the opportunity to design their own compass rose with the specific instruction that each rose must correctly locate north, south, east, and west."
As part of the project, Carrasco has challenged her students to draw maps of the world from memory. She intends to display maps from the early part of the year with those created at the end of the year to show students how much they have learned.
"My goal is to help the children build a foundation on which they will be able to place any geographical references they come across in their reading and learning, and on which they can build as they progress through school and beyond," Carrasco said.
"With the great diversity at Lab, every child is important as we discover that our entire world of seven continents is just a neighborhood to be shared," she added.
Another teacher working with the map theme is Deloris Beaton, also a third-grade teacher. Her students learned about the continents and oceans and celebrated Halloween by painting the world on pumpkins that each child brought to school. After estimating the number of ribs, circumference, and height of their pumpkins, the students counted and measured them to determine exact figures. Then the fun began! They painted their pumpkins the color of the ocean and traced and painted the continents in their proper places on this spherical sea of blue.