Maybe you’ve drawn a map of one of the rooms in your home or maybe you’re just getting started with map-making. Either way, let’s go big! Think about larger places like your neighborhood or the town you live in. Imagine you’re a bird flying over your home. What do you see? Can you tell whether your building has one story or two stories or five stories? When you fly above a tree, can you see the trunk? Look at all the leaves – do things look different than when you’re standing on the ground?
TRY IT!
- Cartographers (map-makers) and architects create maps of buildings, cities and countries using a ‘plan’ or ‘birds-eye’ view, the view from above. Try drawing a picture of your house or apartment building from above.
- Add in the things that are around your building—parking spaces, flowers, trees, fire hydrants. Add in other things that you see in your neighborhood.
- Now draw a map of an island you’d like to visit. Give it a name and think about how you might show a hill, a mountain or a river on your island map. Add in a dock or boat or special attraction. Remember to think about how those items might look from above.
- Draw a map of another favorite place. Give it to your parent or sibling to see if they can figure out some of the features you have included in your map.
TRY MORE!
For more fun, check out Google Earth : https://www.google.com/earth/
This amazing tool allows you to see many different places on the earth with a birds-eye view. Choose the button that says “Launch Earth.”