Map Craft

What You Need:

• Old state maps and road maps
• Scissors
• Permanent markers
• Access to the Internet and a printer for state shape templates
• Invisible tape

What You Do:

1. Help your child find a website where they can access images of the outlines of states. This one is a good place to start: http://www.50states.com/maps/
2. Have your learners choose a few states for which they’d like to create their shapes from old maps. They might choose their home state, a state where grandparents or other relatives live, a nearby state, or a state which has a shape that they find interesting.
3. Print out the shape templates for the states they have chosen. If your child wants to make just one state poster in a large size, enlarge the template.
4. Have your child cut out the state shape, then use one or two pieces of tape to lightly tape it to part of the map. They may want to include streets or cities that are found in that particular state when they place the template on the map.
5. Now they can cut around the template shape on the old map. Your child will create the state shape on a map design!
6. Carefully remove the taped paper template from the map shape.
7. Your child can write the state name on the map design with a permanent marker color that shows up well on the map background.
8. Encourage your child to hang the poster in their room. If your child has created several smaller-sized states, they might want to make a collage of them using a glue stick and construction paper background. Your child may be on their way to a career in cartography!