Here There Be Pirates!

I had an amazing time with my first graders combining maps and pirates!  My first grade teachers had asked me to work with the students on creating maps.  What better way than with pirates!

We read a book called A Pirate's Guide to First Grade by James Preller to set the mood.


We also read a cool book on maps, to review map skills (there were some pages I skipped if it didn't meet the standards for first, i.e. too high):  Follow That Map!  A First Book of Mapping Skills by Scot Ritchie.


I asked students what pirates and maps had in common to get their juices going.  Then, we had a fun time with a map activity I created, where students had to draw maps (focusing on map keys, symbols, and compass rose) to find the treasure!  I differentiated among the grade level, so there are actually 3 levels of maps I used:  for our gifted class, I gave them the blank map template, then they had to draw their own map key, compass rose, and create symbols.  For another class, I provided the map template, map key, symbols, compass rose, and title BUT they had to cut them out and use them in the correct place.  A third class received the map with the map key, symbols, and compass rose on it, but had to create a title and draw the symbols from the map key on to the map (and there was a space where they could create more symbols, if they wanted to).

It made for a really fun lesson, so I hope you'll check it out!  Click on the picture below to take you to TPT or {here} for Teacher's Notebook.