Google Maps

I know its been around for a while but I am just discovering how cool Google Maps.com is. Google Maps not only allows you and your students to map all kinds of places but lets you add pictures and all kinds of content to a map. It combines maps and satellite imagery to show your students connections they might not see from reading about something in a book. You can even link your places to articles in Wikipedia.

One of the best things about the program is its simplicity. I had it up and running after a few minutes.

I've spent the last couple of hours putting together some project ideas for my kids to try next week. We just finished up a neat project called Coming to America. I had my students do some research to figure out who was the first person in their family to come to America. You can listen to some of their podcasts here. Victoria's is one of the best. My friend, Jim Wenzloff suggested I have my students use Google Maps to create a world wide map of where they all came from. What a great idea. As soon as I have it put together I will edit this post and add a link to it here.


I started two more maps. One I called Places I've Been. It's title is self explanatory. After I show it to the kids I am going to have them make their own. Remember when you take a look at it that its just in its draft stage.

The last one I have created is called Native American Culture Regions. It is a unit in our social studies text. Google Maps allows me to have the kids think about all these different regions in a new way. I also think that it will give them a better idea of the big picture of how these people spread across the Americas. This too is in the draft stage so keep checking back as it grows in detail and content.

My goal is to have the kids quickly become the authors of these journeys around the world.

It is pretty exciting stuff. In the next few days I will share with you all the neat add on programs people have written that enhance an already neat tool.

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