I’m all kinds of frustrated with Google docs- I have printables to upload for you all, but I just can’t get the stars to align…I’ll be working on that later. Anyway, I thought I’d post this cool activity that I’ve been doing with my kiddos for the last 13 years. My first year teaching, my mom and I ran into my sister’s kindergarten teacher at a teacher store. Somehow we got to talking, and she told me about this activity that she has always done with her kindergarten kids. I loved this- especially once I got into my classroom and discovered that Texas first graders think they live in the city of Texas, the county of Texas, the state of Texas, and the country of Texas.
Granted, this is a tough concept to grasp, so I love this great visual for the kiddos.
First, I read Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney, or My Global Address by Tamara Nunn.
Then, I get out this can with the world map on it.
You can tell this was before I wanted everything with cute background paper on it…Hmmm, looking at it now, that tape looks really tacky…I digress…
I have a kiddo come up and hold the can for everyone to see and we talk about our world.
Then, I pull out the can that is inside the big one…
And we talk about our continent of North America. Lots of kids recognize the U.S. in this one…
Another kiddo comes up and holds this can and we start from the beginning.
Then, I pull out the can inside…
We talk about our country of the United States of America and how it is part of North America.
I think you get it…
Then,
Our state of Texas, and then,
The last one is a film canister (shows how long I’ve had this) with a house on it. I’ve always meant to add one with our city- maybe this year.
When we finish this, the kids make a cool representation of this on paper. I wish I had a picture of an example…They start with tracing a big circle on manila paper to represent Earth, then inside, they trace the U.S., then inside that, they trace Texas, then inside TX, they trace their house. Each one is colored differently and they look so cool. This is a tough concept for littles, and I think this helps them visualize the different sizes.
I’ll try to take pics when we do this activity this year so you can have a visual!
