Bird's-Eye View: From the Side and From Above

Two columns face each other on this kindergarten page. The left column is headed by an eye looking sideways and shows five things drawn from the side; the right column is headed by an eye looking down and shows the same five things drawn from above, in a different order. Dots sit beside every picture, and the child draws a line from each side view to its top view. On the sheet shown the things are a car, a mug, a table, a traffic cone and a chair. From above the mug becomes a circle with a handle, the cone a dark square with rings and the chair a square with its back along one edge.

Every map is a picture from above, and young children have to learn that looking down changes the shape of things. This page teaches exactly that idea and nothing else: the objects are ones a child can walk around, and the side views are the way children usually draw them. The top views keep one clue from the side, the color of the car and the cone, the handle of the mug, so children can reason from what stays the same. The table from above is just a rectangle, which is often the one children leave until last.

One sheet, five things, five lines. Hold a real mug above children's heads and then at their eye level to show the change before starting. In the C3 Framework this is the beginning of D2.Geo.1.K-2, using maps of familiar places. The base map key page is the natural next step, since its symbols are small drawings seen from above, and the compass rose face follows later in grade 2.