Me On the Map

In Social Studies, we are studying globes and maps.  Second graders, cute things that they are, have no concept of the world.  And rightfully so.  Most of my students haven't been out of our small state.  It is hard for them to grasp how big our planet, continent, country, state, town, etc are.  It's a huge concept!  Last year, I found an awesome idea from:

The product is:

It was actually the first thing I ever bought on Teachers Pay Teachers!

We started by reading Me On the Map by Joan Sweeney.  It's a very basic, simple book that helps students understand their place in the world.

Then the students create a flip book with words and pictures based on their planet, continent, country, state, town, street and ending with a picture of themselves.

They turned out really great!

Then they draw a picture of themselves standing on the Earth.

And the finished products!

Sorry for the awful picture {the sun was really bright and I didn't feel like pulling down the shades}.  I think my students now have a better grasp on the difference between a continent and a country, etc.