Second Grade · History · week 17

Make your own map

Draw an original map of a real or imagined place that includes a grid, a key, and a compass rose.

This week you put every map skill together: a compass rose for direction, a grid for exact locations, and a key that explains your symbols. That is everything a real mapmaker needs.

You can map somewhere real, like your bedroom, your yard, or your neighborhood -- or somewhere imagined, like a made-up island. Either way, the map skills are exactly the same.

📋 For the teacher
Teach it (10–15 min):
  • Help your child choose a real or imagined place to map -- keep it simple enough to finish in one sitting.
  • Walk through the four required parts one at a time: outline, compass rose, grid, key with symbols.
  • Resist fixing every imperfection -- a slightly wobbly grid still teaches the real skill.
  • When it is finished, have your child use their OWN map to give you a grid location or a route, testing that it actually works.
Talk about it:
  • What place did you choose to map?
  • Which part was hardest to make: the grid, the key, or the compass rose?
  • What is one symbol you invented, and what does it mean?

Mastery looks like: They can independently create a map that correctly includes a compass rose, a grid, and a key with matching symbols.

Common stumbles: Forgetting one of the four required parts, or drawing symbols without adding them to the key.

Homework for this lessonType it, write it with a stylus, or print it for pencil & paper.open →
Records attendance + 15 min of History for this learner.
← Back to todayAll coursesYear planner