Unit 3 · Maps and Places

Think of a bird. It flies over your classroom. It looks down. It sees the tops of the desks. It sees the top of the rug. It does not see the legs of the chairs. It sees the room from above.

A map is a drawing of a place from above. It shows where things are. A map of your room shows the desks, the door and the rug. It shows them the way a bird sees them.

A map is not a photo. It is simpler. It leaves out small things. It keeps the big things. That makes it easy to read.

Look at the treasure map. There is a star on it. What does the star mean? You cannot tell. So the class made a key. The key says: star means treasure. Now you know.

A symbol is a small picture that stands for something. A square can stand for a desk. A star can stand for treasure. A wavy line can stand for water. Symbols keep the map simple.

The key is a list. It shows each symbol. Next to it, it says what the symbol means. Always read the key first. Then you can read the map.

A map can show a small place. Your room. A map can show a bigger place. Your whole school. On a school map, each room is a small box. The gym is a big box. The hall is a long line.

A map can show a neighborhood. That is the streets and homes around your school. On this map, the school is one small box. The streets are lines. The park is a green shape.

The bigger the place, the smaller each thing looks. On the room map, your desk is a square. On the school map, your whole room is a square. On the neighborhood map, the school is a square.

Priya looks at the treasure map. The star is near the rug. It is far from the door. Near means close. Far means a long way off. These words help her find the box.

Left and right help too. Hold up your left hand. Now your right hand. On the map, the door is on the left. The windows are on the right. Priya walks to the right side of the room.

Use these words when you give directions. "The book is near the sink." "The ball is far from the fence." "Turn left at the door." Then a friend can find the way.

Left and right can change. Turn around, and left is now right! So map makers use four words that never change. North. South. East. West. On most maps, north is at the top.

Here is a trick. The sun comes up in the east. It goes down in the west. Face the sunrise. East is in front of you. West is behind you. North is on your left. South is on your right.

Maps often have a small cross with the letters N, S, E, W. Find it. Then you know which way is north. Then you can find every other direction too.

Earth is very big. It is round like a ball. We cannot see all of it at once. So people made a globe. A globe is a small model of Earth. You can spin it. You can hold it.

Look at a globe. Most of it is blue. Blue means water. The big blue parts are oceans. The green and brown parts are land. There is more water than land on Earth.

A flat map of the world shows the same thing. Blue is water. Green or brown is land. Rivers are thin blue lines. Lakes are blue shapes with land all around.

Find the United States on a globe. It is a big country. It is in the top half of the globe. It has an ocean on its left side and an ocean on its right side. That is our country.

The United States has fifty states. One is Illinois. Find it in the middle of the country. It is tall and thin. A big lake touches its top right corner. That lake is Lake Michigan.

Chicago is a city in Illinois. It sits right on Lake Michigan. On a map, it is a dot near the top of the state. Many people live in that dot. Maybe you do too.

Leo walks to school. He leaves his door. He turns right. He walks past the store. He turns left at the park. He crosses the street at the light. Then he is at school. That is his route.

A route is the path from one place to another. You can draw it on a map. Start at home. Draw a line. Follow the streets. End at school. Mark the turns.

A good route map tells you where to turn. It shows the things you pass. The store. The park. The light. Those things help you know you are going the right way.

Land is not all the same. Some land goes up. A hill is a bump of land that rises up. You walk up one side. You walk down the other. A very big, tall hill is a mountain.

Some land is flat. A plain is a big piece of flat land. You can see a long way across it. There are no bumps to block your view. Nia saw a plain from the car.

Both hills and plains are called landforms. A landform is a shape the land makes. Look out a window. Is the land near you flat? Or does it go up and down?

A river is water that moves. It flows from high land to low land. It is long and thin. On a map, it is a thin blue line. Boats can ride on a river.

A lake is water with land all around it. It does not flow away. Lake Michigan is a lake next to Chicago. It is so big you cannot see the other side. But it is still a lake. Its water is fresh, not salty.

The ocean is the biggest water of all. It is salty. It goes on for days and days. Illinois does not touch an ocean. The United States touches two. One is on the left side of the map. One is on the right.

Long ago, most of Illinois was prairie. A prairie is a plain covered in tall grass. The grass could grow taller than a person. Wind made it wave like water. Illinois is still called the Prairie State.

Today most of that prairie is farmland. Farmers plowed the grass under. They planted corn and soybeans. When Nia looked out the car window, she saw fields, not tall grass.

Illinois has water too. The Mississippi River runs along its west edge. The Illinois River flows through the middle. Lake Michigan touches the top right corner. Chicago sits on that lake.

Weather is what the sky is doing today. Sunny. Rainy. Windy. Snowy. In Illinois, the weather changes a lot. That is because we have four seasons.

Winter is cold. Snow falls in Chicago. Lake Michigan can get ice near the shore. Spring is wet and cool. Rain falls. Plants wake up. Summer is hot. Corn grows tall. Fall is cool again. Leaves turn red and gold and drop.

The seasons go in a circle. Winter, spring, summer, fall. Then winter again. Every year, the same order. Farmers plant in spring and pick in fall because of this.

It is January in Chicago. Nia puts on a coat, a hat and mittens. She walks to school on a shoveled sidewalk. At recess, she stays inside. It is too cold to play out.

It is July. Nia wears shorts and a T-shirt. She runs through a sprinkler. Her family goes to the beach on Lake Michigan. The city opens the pools.

Weather changes what we wear. It changes what we do. It changes work too. Snowplows run in winter. Farmers work the fields in summer. People adapt. That means they change to fit the weather.

Grandpa’s farm was not always a farm. Long ago it was tall grass. People cut the grass. They plowed the dirt. They planted corn. They built a barn and a house. They changed the place.

People change places every day. They build roads over fields. They dig ponds so cows can drink. They put up houses and stores. In Chicago, people even made a river flow the other way, long ago.

Look around your neighborhood. The sidewalk. The street. The school. The playground. People made all of that. Under it all is the land that was there first.

A town by the ocean often has many fishers. The water is right there. Boats go out in the morning. They come back full of fish. The place gave people that job.

A town on the flat prairie often has many farmers. The soil is rich. The land is flat and easy to plow. Grandpa’s town is a farm town. Its stores sell seeds and tractor parts.

Chicago grew big because of Lake Michigan. Boats could bring things in and out. Then trains met the boats. The place made the city. So places shape people, and people shape places.

A place takes care of us. It gives us water, food and air. We can take care of it too. Start with litter. Litter is trash left on the ground. Pick it up. Put it in a can.

Save water. Turn off the tap while you brush your teeth. Lake Michigan gives Chicago its drinking water. Keep trash out of the lake and the rivers. Clean water is for everyone.

Plant trees. Trees give shade in hot summers. They give homes to birds. Their roots hold the dirt in place when it rains. One kid, one tree, one clean park. That is how you care for a place.