Wild Island Maps

We read a chapter a day from the book, My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett to set up the discussion of mapping and adventure for our Sense of Place unit. We focus on how my father uses the contents of his knapsack to get out of tough situations with wild animals living on Wild Island so it is mostly a story time discussion. When we finish the book, I ask the children to draw the map of Wild Island, how my father got there, as well as anything else they can remember about the island from the description of it in the book. For example, sticky leaves, clearings, the stepping stones, and the river are all things children name as they draw. They often designate certain symbols as "danger" or where we can find the dragon.

Egg Shell Maps

Sometimes things fall into place and other times, not so much. Painting on recycled maps is an early-in-the-year project for our prekindergarten class. The end result is lovely, but it is an exercise to train the eye. The maps offer line and shape, names of places, symbols and subtle colors to indicate place. We usually begin with oil pastels to trace line or to block out shapes and then apply watercolor to add color and more line. 

This class approached this idea with a "not so much" and a "not today" so I tried something different to draw the eye back to line and shape. I asked for egg shells (and we got them!) and the children glued these crunched shells onto maps, smooshing them and layering them. Later when the glue dried, the children painted the layered shells with watercolor. We arrived in the same place, shape and line, with an added bonus: texture!