Gene V. Gandelman
Lesson Four: Mapping Your Neighborhood
Objective To give students the opportunity to think about the boundaries of their neighborhoods and design a map, showing the streets and other features, to share with others.
This lesson is designed to provide students the chance to think about their immediate world—the neighborhood. They will be able to demonstrate a knowledge of the streets and landmarks around their home. This exercise will enhance the students’ map-making skills, ability to give directions, and who how to translate movement to paragraph form.
The lesson will give students a sense of where they live and how their neighborhood is merely a piece of the large puzzle called the city. Students can compare their neighborhoods and even put them together to form a section of the city.
The writing part of the lesson with offer options.
Choice #1
Write a 3-5 paragraph essay describing your neighborhood. Be sure to include descriptions of neighbors, special places, parks, friends’ homes, schools, stores. Write what you like about your area and what you don’t like.
Choice #2
Make a map of the route you take to school. Using you map, describe places you walk past or see along the way. Write about the streets you travel along and the people you see or walk with. It may help for you to write notes while going to school one (or more) day.
This lesson teaches the following skills:
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1. Descriptive writing
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2. Direction following
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3. Making and recording observations
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4. Organizing thoughts
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5. Sequencing
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6. Collaborative learning
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7. Cartography skills
