After a neighborhood walk, a small group of children worked on a way to document their experience by illustrating landmarks and placing them on a big paper that represented their route. This became our first time attempting a map, of sorts. After reflecting with teachers on this experience, we thought this mapping concept would be best tried out in a more familiar and smaller space. We started out in the West Wing and continued on to the Front Yard, Middle Courtyard, and Kitchen. The maps have been posted on the wall for children to interact with them. This video captures one of these moments.
The children started reading the maps and finding the corresponding locations. Those who helped create the map would see their representations being understood and used by others and this created a stronger desire to keep working with this communication tool.
To build on this joy of communication, we started small group Treasure Hunts where the only way to find the treasure is to read the map and discover together where the “X marks the spot”. This has brought such a fun playfulness to our map making and reading and has challenged the children to interpret the graphics, placement, and direction represented on maps. Try it at home – the children are now ‘hiding’ things, drawing maps, and inviting each other to discover the treasure. It’s a game of graphic interpretation and communication made fun through collaboration! -Teacher Jennifer