Week 9 - Google Maps

In our letter-writing and geography unit, we have been sending a "Flat Stanley" to students' friends and relatives around the world. Until last week, we had a Michigan, United States, and World Map posted in the classroom and we put a pin in the map when Flat Stanley came back from another destination. Our customized Google Map has been a much more exciting way to log, follow, and track Flat Stanley's progress across the world.

My second grade students would have a very difficult time mapping this on their own, so I have created this map with them as our Flat Stanley unit has progressed. As a class, we read the information that is sent back from the recipient, mark it on the Google Map, summarize the content of the letter we received, and customize the map to meet our needs. It was the students' idea to color code the map the way that we did (e.g. red pin/red line). They were really excited about working on this together and being able to access the site from home to show their families. In our classroom, this is a map that we will be referring back to for several months, as our Flat Stanley letters come back from the recipients.

View Flat Stanley's Journey in a larger map