SECOND GRADE NEIGHBORHOOD MAPS

As part of their Social Studies unit on communities, second grade students learned a lot about cities and neighborhoods, then made beautiful maps in their classroom. In the computer lab, the students used Google Earth to zoom in on and view, first the city of Rockville, then our school, and some even looked at their own houses and neighborhoods. We discussed how the pictures were taken by satellite and were views from on top of their houses, so you couldn't see the windows and doors, but you could see the layouts of streets and yards.

Working in KidPix, second graders made maps of the immediate area around their homes, trying to show as much detail as might be captured by satellite pictues. It was hard to keep the maps totally flat, especially when tempted by all the great stamps of trees, cars and animals available in KidPix!