Consumer Information Center Helping Your Child Learn Geography Location Position on the
Consumer Information Center: Helping Your Child Learn Geography - Location: Position on the
Earth's Surface
Helping Your Child Learn Geography - October 1996
Location: Position on the Earth's Surface
Look at a map or globe. Where are places located? Every place has a "global
address" that tells exactly where in the world it's located, just as
your home has a street address. There are two numbers in a global
address--a number for latitude and one for longitude.
If you know these numbers and how to use them, you can find any place in
the world and give its absolute location. (For definitions, see
the glossary at the end of this booklet.)
Why are things located in particular places and how do these places
influence our lives? Location can describe how one place relates to
another. For example, the Panama Canal was cut across an extremely narrow
strip of land in Central America. It provides a shipping lane between the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, eliminating the need for long, dangerous
journeys around South America.
Activities
- To help young children learn location, make sure they know the name
of their town and their street address, and that they can describe the
building and neighborhood in which they live. Then, when you talk about
other places, they have something of their own with which to compare.
- Children need to understand positional words. Teach children words
like "above'' and "below" in a natural way when you talk
with them or give them directions. When picking up toys to put away,
say, "Please put your toy into the basket on the "right,'' or "Put
the green washcloth into the drawer." Right and left are as much
directional terms as north, south, east, and west. Other words that
describe such features as color, size, and shape are also important.
- Show your children north, south, east, and west by using your home as
a reference point. Perhaps you can see the sun rising in the morning
through a bedroom window that faces east and setting at night through a
kitchen window on the west.
- Playing games can reinforce their knowledge. For example, once
children have their directional bearings, you can hide an object, then
give them directions to its location: "Two steps to the north,
three steps west. . .''
Put your child's natural curiosity to work. Even small children can
learn to read simple maps of their school, neighborhood, and community.
Here are some simple map activities you can do with your children.
- Go on a walk and collect natural materials such as acorns and leaves
to use for an art project. Map the location where you found those items.
- Create a treasure map for children to find hidden treats in the yard
or inside your home (a fun idea for birthday parties). Also, encourage
children to play this game with one another--hiding the "treasure"
and drawing the map. Or, some rainy day, suggest they draw imaginary
treasure maps just for fun.
- See if you can find your street on a town or city map. Point out
where your relatives or your children's best friends live.
- Find the nearest park, lake, mountain, or other cultural or physical
feature on a map. Then, talk about how these features affect your
child's life. Living near the ocean may make your climate moderate and
bring tourists to the area. Mountains may block some weather fronts and
offer recreational opportunities, such as camping and hiking.
- Point out different kinds of maps to your children--such as a state
highway map, a city or town map, a bus route map or shopping mall
map--and discuss their different uses. Also, check the back of this
booklet for samples of three different types of
maps of the same place--Salt Lake City, Utah. Shown are a shaded
relief map, a road map, and a topographic map.
- Before taking a trip, show your children a map of where you are going
and how you plan to get there. Look for other routes you could take and
talk about why you chose the one you did. Maybe they can follow the map
as you travel; for example, when you get to one town, ask them to tell
you the next.
- Encourage your children to make their own maps using legends (keys to
what the pictures or symbols in a map mean). They can draw fanciful maps
of places or journeys they have read about. Older children might draw a
layout of their neighborhood.
- Keep a globe or a world map near the television and use it to locate
places talked about on television programs, or use a U.S. map to follow
the travels of your favorite sports team.
- Look at a map of your state, such as this one of New Hampshire. Look
at the numbers at the bottom and the letters at the right and imagine
lines extended that divide the map into a grid. Locate
Manchester in grid F-3. Use the scale to measure the straight-line
distance between Manchester and Mount Washington.
- On a globe or world map, ask your child to point with a finger to the
North Pole, South Pole, and the Equator. Ask which is the Western
Hemisphere, the Eastern Hemisphere, and in which one do we live. Find
the lines running from the North Pole to the South Pole and identify
them as lines of longitude. Find the lines that run parallel
to the Equator--lines of latitude. Are the lines numbered?
Talk about what these lines mean. Try to figure out roughly the degrees
of longitude and latitude for where you live--your global address.
Children use all of their senses to learn about the world. Objects that
they can touch, see, smell, taste, and hear help them understand the link
between a model (such as a map) and the real thing.
- Put together puzzles of the United States or the world. By touching
and looking at the puzzle pieces, they can better understand where one
place is located in relation to others.
- Use pictures from books and magazines to help your children associate
geographic terms with visual images. A picture of a desert can stimulate
conversation about the features of a desert--dry and barren. Talk about
many different places and imagine what it would be like to visit them.
- Make a three-dimensional map of your home or neighborhood using milk
cartons for buildings. Draw a map of the block on a piece of cardboard,
then cut up the cartons (or any other three-dimensional item) and use
them to represent buildings. Use bottle tops or smaller boxes to add
interest to the map, but try to keep the scale relationships fairly
accurate (e.g., 2 feet on the map equals 1 city block).
- Use popular board games like "Game of the States'' or "Trip
Around the World" to teach your children about location, commerce,
transportation, and the relationships among different countries and
areas of the world. Some of these games may be available at public
libraries.
- Make a globe out of papier-maché using strips of old newspaper
and a paste made from flour and water. In doing this, children will
better understand the differences between a flat map and a globe.
Directions
Make the paste by mixing 1 part flour with 2 parts water. Tear
Newspaper strips about 1 inch wide and 3 inches long. Blow up a balloon
and tie it. Dip the strips into the paste and wrap the balloon as smoothly
as possible with one layer of the papier-maché strips. Then wrap it
again with three more layers; at this stage, try using the papier-maché
to make models of mountains and valleys. Let the wrapped balloon dry for
at least 24 hours. Then using poster or tempera paints, paint the
continents and oceans.
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[Introduction] 
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