Maps: What are we noticing and thinking about

3/3/2020

Today, we wanted to take a moment to gauge what the children have been thinking about with all of the maps we've been exploring, making, pinning, and using. Sylvie observed yesterday, "There are so many maps." But what does this mean? What does a map mean to them? How do they think about them? What do they notice when they look at it? What can we do with it? What would we put on a map?

Sylvie and her mom brought in a wonderful book that really sparked conversation about this at morning meeting. We also took a minute to pin some more of their houses on our current maps, and revisited our conversation (specifically from yesterday) about how we need different maps to see different things.

The children have been drawing maps, unprompted by us, and they mention bridges, Cedar in Kenya, and other related concepts/ideas. We really want to take some time to gather information from them (and eventually, but always, you guys) about where we are in this journey.

A quick look at yesterday

"My house is far away. We haven't been to all the Brown Room friend's houses." - Sylvie
"It's [Sylvie's house] next to my house. Me and Sylvie live close" - C.C.

Jack drew a map that included: St. John's, the bridge, water under the bridge, signs that tell us how to get to the bridge, and the pathway.

Painting Key Bridge from our field trip

"That's your house that's Melanie's house." - C.C.

Back to our regularly scheduled program (Today)

We asked them to take some time to notice this map. What colors do you see? Lines? What might the colors represent? etc. There was a corresponding color palette, and we offered them the opportunity to paint with the map.

"The blue is water. No, not water. Only pretend water." - Jack
"Yeah, because look [points to map], it's not these water." - Giacomo
"It's not coming down. And do you notice those orange dots? And orange is my favorite color." - Jack

Sylvie and Cedar also asked to paint with the map

"If we drew our own map, a map of things we know and have visited, what would we need?" - Elyse

"California. It isn't our neighborhood, but it's a different place." - Jack
"St John's." - Giacomo
"Post office." - Sylvie
"Bridges." - Jack

Working collaboratively is so valuable. They have to notice each other's positions and presence, while also focusing on their work. They moved effortlessly around the paper today, frequently checking to see where the other children were working. They also took time to observe each other's drawings.

"I made black cars." - George
"So, maybe we need cars on our maps." - Elyse
"Yeah. That's cars." - George
"Sylvie, maybe you could help George add cars?" - Elyse
Sylvie then crawled on her belly to George and worked with him.

Observation drawings

As we have been thinking about how to represent ourselves on the map, we asked Lochie and C.C. to join Jessica outside last week and take a look at the school. They drew the windows, bell tower, door, etc. Today, Jen invited them back out to draw once more. Giacomo and Jack also had a turn to work with Jen.

These experiences have many intentions. First, stopping to observe details, structures, shapes, colors, even the presence of something, is a skill. This is certainly an emerging skill, and one that we will continue to hone over the coming years. Of course, we also ask them to translate these observations into drawings, paintings, clay, and more.

"What do you notice?" "What do you see?" "What shapes/colors do you see?"
"What are you thinking about [while observing]?" "What is the tallest/shortest/widest thing you see?"
"How could you draw [insert thing they noticed] "Which tool [pencil, pen, marker, etc.] do you need to draw it?"