Reading: Real Life Reading

Map Reading

 

            Today's Snack: A recipe is like a map for cooking. Can you find a recipe for your favorite snack item? Maybe chocolate-chip cookies? Read the recipe, follow the instructions, make the cookies, and eat and enjoy. You get the same happy feeling if you can follow a map to get from Point A to Point B. Well, ALMOST as happy a feeling as eating chocolate-chip cookies!

 

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Supplies:

Get a map of your city - download from an online source

such as Mapquest, buy a state map at a gas station that has

a city map on the other side, ask at your local bus operator's office to see if they can spare one of their route maps, or see if you can get a photocopy of a city map

from the public library

 

 

            Map-reading is an important life skill that goes beyond just finding out where you are. If you can read a map, you can find out where you want to be!

 

            Remember that a map will be laid out with the north facing away from you, along the top of the map, and the south closest to the reader, along the bottom. The west will be on your left, and the east will be on your right.

 

            Somewhere in a corner, there should be a "scale." It will tell you how much distance on the map represents REAL distance, in the real world of the city that the map shows. Perhaps one inch on the map will represent one mile of the city. It's important to consider the scale on a map when you are deciding where to go, and want to know how long it is likely to take you.

 

            You may need an adult's help to start reading the map. First things first: find the location on the map for where you are right now. Can you find it? How about finding your home? How about finding your school and your favorite sports stadium, park or store?

 

You should be able to spot the names of larger bodies of water, such as lakes and rivers, and smaller streams should be labeled, too.

 

            Other landmarks, such as big parks, universities, hospitals and libraries, should be designated on a good map.

 

            Can you read the street names? How is your city laid out - like a grid? Or all willy-nilly? You can tell a little bit about how old a city is based on how straight or crooked the streets are. The newer the city, or part of the city, the straighter the streets are laid out. That's because newer cities and metro areas have been built after the automobile. Older cities and metro areas generally were laid out when people were still riding around on horses, or in horse-drawn carriages. Their crooked dirt lanes are telltale signs that they are older than the 1920s or so, when the automobile began to rule the road.

 

            Spend a little more time and become a little more familiar with your map. Are bus stops marked? Fire stations? Police stations? Schools? Cultural centers? Museums?

 

            Once you're pretty sure you have read and understood all parts of your map, plan a journey through your city from where you are now, to someplace far away, but still on the map. What streets will you "drive" on, to get there? Will you turn left, or right? How many blocks must you drive straight? Count the blocks. There are 12 city blocks in one mile. Once you have a count of the number of blocks you will travel, figure that you will drive about 25 miles per hour. How long will your journey take you?