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Activity #1: Locating Issaquah

Meets EALR: Social Studies, Geography

1.2 recognize spatial patterns on Earth’s surface and understand the processes that create…

locate poles, continents, oceans, Washington state, and the local community on maps and globes

Objective: Find where we live on a map of; the world, United States of America, Washington State, and Seattle and the greater Eastside. Find Issaquah on the map of Washington State and the Seattle map.

Materials: maps of; the world, the United States of America, Washington, and Seattle.

Procedure:

1. Guide the class in defining geography. As a class, identify the approximate location of Issaquah on each of the four maps. Specifically, find Issaquah on the maps of Washington State and Seattle.
2. Discuss features of a map; compass rose, key, water, land, cities, boarders, rivers, etc.
3. Using the map of the world, locate the poles, continents, oceans, equator, poles, and hemispheres. Use Velcro cards to label these.

Extensions:

1. Discuss the similarities and differences between each of the maps.
2. Students take turns finding specific locations on each of the maps.
3. Students attach the world map Velcro labels as an activity center. Have a specific place for each label that is not attached, as they are small and easy to lose.
4. Use a classroom globe to locate the poles, continents, oceans, Washington State, and Issaquah. Compare the flat maps to a three dimensional globe. Does the globe show any locations better than the flat maps (i.e. poles).