The National Geographic Giant Traveling Map returned to our district for the fifth year!
Mrs. Yollis coordinates the rental of this incredible learning tool for her district. Click here to learn more about how to rent a map for your school.
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The first thing we did was recreate our ClustrMap gadget map!
What do you notice about the Asian visitors to our blog?
Where are some of the bigger dots?
Can you name a country that has visited our blog?
Why are there so few in the north?
It was fun to create a human ClustrMap!
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Each Giant Map comes with a trunk full of resources!
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We looked closely at the compass rose. Then we practiced traveling north, south, east or west. Knowing direction is important on a map!
Next it was time to explore. What did you locate in Asia?
Did you walk a major river? Did you stand or sit inside an Asian country? How did one Asian country compare to another?
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Here we are seated along the border between Europe and Asia. Who can name the natural features that separate the two continents?
Some people stood in two continents at the same time!
Next it was time to stand on the equator! The equator is an imaginary line of latitude that separates the northern and southern hemispheres. Do we live north or south of the equator?
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We played some of the games that came with the map. Each team (red, blue, yellow, and green) was given a stack of country cards. The object of the game was to be the first to place a cone on the correct country.
A red rope with knots came with the map. Each knot measured 500 miles.
We used the scale rope to measure distance. The longer the rope, the farther away the county.
The yellow team was a long way away from Vietnam.
The red team was quite close to Yemen.
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What body of water did you stand in?
Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, or the Arctic Ocean?
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Some years, Mrs. Yollis made movies using the Giant Traveling Maps!
Giant Traveling Map of Africa
Giant Traveling Map of North America
The Giant Map of Asia
Which continent would you visit and why?
What was your favorite activity on the map?
Posts
Hello from Tanzania! These maps are fantastic and I love how they were used for teaching. This is such an amazing project. As a teacher, I have never seen these before but I might do a little research on them. The package seems very well done and the knotted rope gives me some ideas for my own teaching but using smaller maps. You could even use white string and mark the key distances with a marker. Looking great class and keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteMs. Rorey
Miss Rorey's Room
Dear Mrs, Yollis and class,
ReplyDeleteYour map is most certainly not the size to put up on a wall in class. :)
Like you, I find a number of visitors from the various countries in Asia visiting my blogs with the strongest Asian nation numbers coming from India. I’ve also noticed you seem to have visitors from almost every nation in your ClustrMap gadget map. It can be quite surprising when you can see people from around the world have visited your blog. I didn’t expect this to happen when I started blogging.
Having been a Scout, I am quite use to following maps and compass directions. Today, we cannot only look at maps, we can discover more about the countries we see by searching the internet to find photos, videos and information links.
Did your map journeys make you dream of one day visiting some of the countries you visited?
I took a chance to visit one of our world’s smallest nations in 2010. I had friends in Singapore and enjoyed visiting this thriving small country. I experienced a number of cultures in this beautiful country and walked the streets and parks. It was a visit I will never forget.
Did you find Singapore on the map?
What an experience you all had using the Giant Maps but I did wonder when you were shown standing on the equator. You seemed to all be wearing very warm clothing to be on the equator. Weren’t you feeling too hot?
Which continent would I visit and why?
Of course, given the opportunity, I would visit every continent, even Antarctica, and every island in the world but this is not really possible. I have been as far east as Hawaii and as far west as England, Scotland and Wales but I have heard there is a possible mythical continent somewhere in between.
I would like to find and explore the continent of North America. I have heard the people are friendly and there are many beautiful places to see.
There are also the great continents of South America and Africa to be seen so they are right up at the top of the list too. We have an incredible world.
You all probably know reading blogs often starts me thinking in different directions. Seeing your large map of Asia had me thinking of how our world came to look as it does. I thought of how the countries are where they are and how the mountains of the Himalayas were formed. Here is a link to a post I made for you about our dynamic Earth…
http://rossmannellcomments.edublogs.org/2013/03/08/plate-tectonics-and-our-dynamic-continents-for-mrs-yollis-and-class/
@RossMannell
Teacher (retired), N.S.W., Australia
@ Mr. Mannell,
DeleteThank you so much for your thoughtful comment and especially for the extended one! We had a rich discussion about Pangaea after reading your post and watching the videos!
We left you some comments over there!
Many thanks!
Mrs. Y♥llis
Dear Mrs Yollis & Class,
ReplyDeleteI loved looking at your post of gigantic maps - what a fabulous thing to get to play with! I had a look to see if we could get them here in the UK, but it's only in the US - what a shame!
In A Room with a View we love maps, and often look at our flag map and visitor statistics. We love it when we get a new flag, and we often use our atlases to locate a new country, and find its capital city.
If I could travel anywhere, it would be to South America. I would love to follow the Inca trail and see Macchu Picchu, visit lake Titicaca, the highest lake in the world and go to the Atacama desert, the driest place on earth. So many extremes!
I hope one day you get to travel to your dream destinations!
Your friend,
Mrs Monaghan
@ Mrs. Monaghan,
DeleteThank you for your fabulous comment! The giant maps are simply amazing! What a great way to ignite an interest in geography! Students get to take off their shoes and walk rivers, hike mountains, and swim in oceans. Bringing the maps to my district each year is a lot of work, but well worth it!
Last year we had the South America map. We were able to really get an understanding of the enormity of the Amazon.
In the early 1990s, I was fortunate and got to travel to South America. I went to Lima, Peru, and then up to magical Machu Pichu. Walking through the historic ruins was an experience I'll never forget. I hiked a bit of the Inca Trail, but did not do a full trek.
We also drove down to Nazca and flew over the Nazca Lines.
Hard to believe that the lines were dug between 400 and 650 A.D.
Next year I'm hoping to get the newest giant map, Europe! That will be the soonest I'll be in your neighborhood! I'd love to visit you someday!
Warmly,
Mrs. Y♥llis
Jealous! That sounds like a dream trip to South America. Maybe one day!
DeleteHave you visited Europe before? I've been travelling to different parts of Europe for the last 2 decades and still haven't seen half of what I'd like to see! I am always stuck with the dilemma... two weeks in one place and see it in detail, or travel round and see lots of places but only briefly. If you ever get this far, it would certainly be amazing to meet up!
Mrs Monaghan
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteMy favorite game was to go to the country that your card said. It had an animal on it. I liked it, because I got more experience learning about countries.
My country was Cambodia. I could not lay in my country. I couldn't even sit on it because I it is a small country. Cambodia has lots of neighbors, such as Vietnam and Thailand. My grandma visited many countries. She went to Cambodia and Vietnam. She had an great time. What is your favorite country in Asia and have you ever visited one of them?
Sincerely,
Sean
Hi Mrs.Yollis' class,
ReplyDeleteI've never been to Asia, but I would love to go there,espescaily mount Everest!
I also think it's really interesting that Asia has the population of 400000000 people!
from Lara :)