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Mr. Lindsay : Home Page > Social Studies

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One of our teachers is working on a project to podcast summaries of the lessons in the textbook. Download his lessons here.

Students are learning the nuts and bolts of reading maps and locating points on the globe using latitude and longitude. This can be a little confusing; students often mix up the two. One way I try to help them is by teaching them to say "ladder, dude!" Lines of latitude are like the rungs of a ladder. Naming a line of latitude is like telling someone which step they're on. Likewise, the step you're on tells you how far up or down you're located. Another mnemonic is that flat and lat sound alike; lines of latitude are flat.

To get started, play The Compass Game from NOVA to help review some basic map vocabulary.

Get familiar with maps by looking at a bunch of them here.

National Geographic explains latitude and longitude.

The following three sites will challenge your latitude and longitude locating skills. Each site is harder than the previous one.

http://www.kidsgeo.com/geography-games/latitude-longitude-map-game.php

http://www.purposegames.com/game/longitude-and-latitude-quiz

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/geology/leveson/core/linksa/longlatquiz1.html

Practice your map vocabulary with these two games:

http://www.quia.com/rr/31012.html

http://www.quia.com/cb/1284.html?AP_rand=1556255892&playHTML=1

Finally, put your map skills to the test by taking the online quiz.

Parent Involvement:

The reading in our social studies series can be difficult to comprehend. Students benefit greatly from discussing what they read and identifying main ideas. Try to connect ideas to modern analogies.

Another commonality of children is their sentiment that history is boring because it is about "stuff that already happened." Try to help them understand the importance of history. In a democracy, especially, it is of key importance to understand history and the mistakes of the past. How can we citizens make informed decisions if they don't know how similar situations turned out in the past? History is a key to unlocking a brighter future.

As David C. McCullough puts it:

"History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are."

And Maya Angelou:

"History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again."

dlindsay, 08/22/10 07:25 (GMT)