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George Washington
Teaches Map Directions

Subjects

• Arts & Humanities
  --Visual Arts
• Social Studies
  --Geography
  --History
  ----U.S. History
  --Holidays

Grade

• 3-5
• 6-8

Brief Description

If students follow "directions," they'll have a picture of George Washington.

Objectives

Students

• use this activity to learn/reinforce cardinal direction points (north, east, south, west) and ordinal direction points (northeast, southeast, southwest, northwest).
• follow directions.
• plot points on a grid.

Keywords

grid, geography, directions, cardinal directions, compass, map, ordinal directions, intercardinal directions, intermediate directions

Materials Needed

• sheet of graph/grid paper, one per student (the grid on the graph paper must have at least 20 squares across and 25 squares down)

Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will follow the teacher's oral or written instructions. They will plot points on a sheet of grid paper. When they connect the points, they will have the outline of a profile of George Washington similar to this one.

Here are the instructions to give to students to end up with an outline of George Washington.

Before the Lesson
If students need to be taught, or need to review, the cardinal direction points (north, east, south, west) and ordinal direction points (northeast, southeast, southwest, northwest), you will want to review those skills before proceeding to the lesson.

The Lesson

• Do not tell students in advance that following the directions [see sidebar] will yield a silhouette/outline of George Washington's head. Washington's profile should be the surprise of the lesson.
• Distribute to each student a sheet of graph paper. The grid on the paper must be at least 20 squares wide and 25 squares long.
• Instruct students to hold their grid paper vertically so that there are more squares doing down the page than across the page. Fold the paper in half to locate the center square across the top (narrower width) of the page. Draw a light X in the square at the center point of the squares going across the page. That will be the starting point for this lesson.
• Challenge students to listen as you provide the instructions in the sidebar.

Alternate idea: Instead of providing instructions orally, you might give students the printed instructions that appear in the sidebar to the right. (You can do that by copying the instructions onto a board or a sheet of chart paper; or you can "copy and paste" the instructions into a word-processing document that can be distributed to students.)

• For example, have students start the activity by placing their pencil on the light X they have drawn at the top-center of the grid paper. Have them go three squares to the east and put a mark on the graph paper. Then they should draw a line to connect the light X point at the top-center of the page to that point that is 3 squares to the right (east). Walk around making certain that students have the concept and have followed the instruction.
• Repeat instructions one at a time, making certain that students are following them, until you are comfortable that they have the idea. When you are comfortable you can give the entire series of instructions as they appear in the sidebar to the right.

Assessment

Lesson Plan Source

EducationWorld.com

Submitted By

Gary Hopkins

National Standards

MATHEMATICS: Algebra
GRADES K - 4
NM-ALG.PK-2.1 Understand Patterns, Relations, and Functions
NM-ALG.PK-2.3 Use Mathematical Models to Represent and Understand Quantitative Relationships
GRADES 3 - 5
NM-ALG.3-5.1 Understand Patterns, Relations, and Functions
NM-ALG.3-5.3 Use Mathematical Models to Represent and Understand Quantitative Relationships
GRADES 6 - 8
NM-ALG.6-8.1 Understand Patterns, Relations, and Functions
NM-ALG.6-8.3 Use Mathematical Models to Represent and Understand Quantitative Relationships
GRADES 9 - 12
NM-ALG.9-12.1 Understand Patterns, Relations, and Functions
NM-ALG.9-12.3 Use Mathematical Models to Represent and Understand Quantitative Relationships

SOCIAL SCIENCES: Geography
GRADES K - 12
NSS-G.K-12.1 The World in Spatial Terms

SOCIAL SCIENCES: U.S. History
GRADES K - 4
NSS-USH.K-4.3 The History of the United States: Democratic Principles and Values and the People from Many Cultures Who Contributed to Its Cultural, Economic, and Political Heritage
GRADES 5 - 12
NSS-USH.5-12.3 Era 3: Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1820s)

See more Lesson Plans of the Day in our Lesson Plan of the Day Archive. (There you can search for lessons by subject too.)

For additional math lesson plans, see these Education World resources:

• Lesson Planning: Math
• Math Subject Center
• Teacher-Submitted Lesson Plans: Math

For additional social studies lesson plans, see these Education World resources:

• Lesson Planning: Social Studies
• Social Studies Subject Center
• Teacher-Submitted Lesson Plans: Social Studies
• Geography A to Z
• Where in the World Is Mrs. Waffenschmidt?
• Mystery State
• Work Sheets from Teacher Created Materials: Social Studies

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Originally published 02/13/2006
Last updated 01/19/2009