Spotlight on Kindergarten: Making Maps & More!

As we continue through our project  work, kindergartners began working on something brand new!  Maps have been a main topic inside the classroom and thus the ideas of maps permeated down into the atelier.  Together, classes developed their own collaborative mind maps (no pun intended :)- and discussed every detail they knew about maps.  Students pointed out that maps show one where to go, some maps show the landscape (mountains, rivers, deserts), maps include symbols, have a compass (we need to know what direction we're going!), are different colors, and can help one when he or she is lost.  After, we grouped into pairs and discussed how to get home from school.  Some students had a bit of difficulty articulating this concept.  We discovered that it is imperative that we know our address as well as directions (make a left) and landmarks (turn at the White House). 

Next, students were told that they would be drawing their own maps - using shapes and lines only.  We examined flat two-dimensional shapes and matched the shapes to forms: three-dimensional shapes.  I was highly impressed with the knowledge that our kindergarten students displayed.  Students identified cubes, spheres, cylinders, and pyramids and could actually look at a two-dimensional picture and build a three-dimensional form from it.  (Although this may sound easy to some, it is actually a very difficult task.  Not only could our students build it, but they could easily talk about how many squares they needed to build a cube as well as how many triangles were needed to build a pyramid before even touching the materials to build.  Wow!)

Finally, our students began to draw a map of either their house or their bedroom (from a bird's eye perspective). In order to make the map accurate, we had to talk about the shape of our rooms, how many walls there were, and which direction we would begin with.  If I am looking north, I need to know what objects I see in front of me.  South includes all that is behind me.  We used positional words easily: beside, below, above, under.  Different shapes represented furniture in the rooms and lines symbolized walls, doors, closets, etc.  Our students even went as far as labeling each part of their room!  If you are able to this weekend, have your child make another map or simply take a picture of each wall in their room. We can compare and contrast our drawings to real life!  Next week, we will be transforming our flat 2D drawings into real 3D dioramas!

Pre-K3 and Pre-K4 continue to work on their own projects: Mr. Jackson's class is also working with dimensional forms to build trains; Ms. Shonte's class is using knowledge from prior learning experiences to represent water; Ms. Yolanda's class is working with patterns and rhythm.  Ms. Kate and Ms. Leslie's class is finishing up their ideas about gifts and giving! We've been busy! Look for more documentation of their work around the halls in the upcoming weeks!