Day 4: Cardinal Directions
Objective:
Students will develop map skills by using cardinal directions on maps (1.4b)
Materials:
![Picture](/uploads/2/1/5/3/21538466/2982760.png)
School maps (enough copies for each student)
Giant post-it notes
Large Compass Rose to display at the front of the classroom
Enlarged copy of the Landonia Grid Map
N, E, S, and W labels on each wall of the classroom
Copies of a compass rose for each set of tables
Events of Instruction:
- Instruct students to refer to the school maps on their desks and create a list of instructions/directions for the class to move from the classroom to the auditorium (group work). Students can use pictures or write the directions.
- Allow each group time to share their directions.
- Gather students for whole-group instruction.
- Discuss the directional terms that were most frequently used in describing how to get from Point A (the classroom) to Point B (the auditorium) within the school building.
- Reveal a compass rose.
- Ask students if they have seen a compass before on a trip or on a map. Discuss the four cardinal directions as illustrated on a compass rose.
- Use the cardinal directions to direct a cut-out person from an arbitrary Point A to a destination on the Landonia grid map. Demonstrate once with an example, and then ask for volunteers to direct the person from point A to an assigned destination using the cardinal directions.
- Instruct students to return to their desks but remain standing
- Indicate that each of the four classroom walls has been labelled with N, E, S, or W to represent the four cardinal directions.
- Instruct students to follow your directions as they tour the classroom. For example, "take four steps North;" the students would then all take four steps towards the wall labelled "N." Practice several times, and then make it a game, allowing students to give directions, as well.
- Instruct students to return to their desks and take a seat.
- Instruct students to individually rewrite the directions from the classroom to the auditorium using the cardinal directions. Distribute enough school maps for each student to have a copy. Students can draw the arrows on the map from point A to point B then label each arrow with the corresponding cardinal direction (N, E, S, or W) or they can record the directions in their interactive notebooks. Students should refer to the compass rose on their desks.
- Instruct students to either record their directions or glue the school map inside their interactive notebooks.
Differentiation:
- Allow students to work in groups for the initial direction-writing activity. ELL students should be permitted to draw arrows and create symbolic directions.
- ELL students can draw and label arrows with the cardinal directions on the final direction-rewrite.
- Students who finish early should be assigned an additional destination on the school map.
Assessment:
- Students will direct an individual from one location to an assigned destination on a map using the cardinal directions
- Students will practice moving according to the cardinal directions
- Students will write directions to move from Point A to Point B using the cardinal directions.