Read the Map Key

A simple island map fills the top of this 1st grade page, seen from above, with a river running down one side, a path across the middle and a north arrow in the corner. Small symbols are scattered over it. Under the map a key lists five symbols with their words: flower bed, bridge, bench, tree and bush. Below that sit five boxes headed bridge, tree, bench, bush and flower bed, one for every symbol in the key. The child finds each thing from the key on the map and writes how many there are in its box. On the sheet shown there are 1 bridge, 5 trees, 4 benches, 2 bushes and 3 flower beds.

A map key is the first real map skill: a symbol stands for a thing, and the key tells you which. Counting makes children use the key again and again, matching a small drawing to the same drawing on the map, so the idea sticks without a lecture. The tree and the bush are near look-alikes on purpose, a round leafy top and a lumpy bush, and telling them apart is where careful readers show themselves. The river and the path are drawn but not in the key, which is a good question to ask: how do you know what they are?

One sheet, five symbols, five counts. Every symbol in the key has its own box, so nothing is left over; ask children to tick each symbol on the map as they count it so none is counted twice. In the C3 Framework this supports D2.Geo.1.K-2, constructing and using maps of familiar places. Afterwards, ask children to draw a map of the classroom with a key of three symbols. The faces go on to views from above, compass roses, continents and directions on a map.