Earth and Sky - Finding Your Way

Focus: Animals, including humans, use various clues to recognize their surroundings and orient themselves in the natural world.

Puppets (Benjy Bear, Dora Digger Wasp, Hannah Honeybee, Sammy Salmon, Thelma Thrush)

Materials Checklist
Puppet Show (puppets, script)
Sneak a Peek (egg cartons, assortment of small objects in duplicate)
Simon Says (K-2) (signs or pictures to indicate north, south, east, west)
Direction Drill (compasses, enlarged model of a compass)
Treasure Trek (cards or sheet of directions for each group, compasses, optional items to collect at each station)

Supplementary Reference Materials (Parts of a Compass, Paper Compass Directions)

Additional Reading/Resources
Be Expert with Map and Compass, by Bjorn Kjellstrom, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1994.
Mapping, by David Greenhood, University Press, Chicago, IL, 1964.
Earth, by James Luhr, Dorling Kindersley Publishing, New York, 2003.
ELF Corner: Make a Secret Map.

Teaching suggestions
Sneak a Peak
Rather than egg cartons, you can use shoe box lids with a grid marked off showing eight squares.

For younger children, four items are plenty to include in this activity.

It helps to store sets of items in Ziploc bags when not in use. One volunteer photocopies an 8 part grid onto card stock paper with dark colored paper for the covers. Then she uses bowtie and rotini pasta, pennies, paper clips, different colored beans. She can then put identical sets in ziploc bags so she can hand out the materials efficiently to kids.

Simon Says
Rather than "Never Eat Shredded Wheat" how about this mnemonic: Newts Eat Slimy Worms (N, E, S, W) or Never Eat Slimy Worms!

Older children can play Eye Spy where the leader names an object in view and the children determine in which direction it is found.

You'll want to make a long list of commands ahead of time so you can just read them off, especially for older students when you need to go FAST.

Mark out a compass in chalk on blacktop playground, noting N,S,E,W. Incorporate these cardinal points into your Simon Says commands.

If needed, your first command can be, "Simon Says no one should talk until this activity is over!"

A few fun example Simon Says commands: Face north, jump in the air, and yell Bananas! Or, close your eyes and turn a complete circle. Or, for adults, Face in the direction of your birthplace.

Direction Drill
Another rhyme to help children use the compass:
"North, South, East or West,
Choose the letter for your quest.
Line up the arrow and the Red
This is the direction you must head."

Have kids try not only finding which direction is East, but turn it around and have them find out which direction they are already facing or which direction the flag is in.

Be sure to call the compass needle a needle rather than the arrow so folks don't confuse it with the “direction of travel” arrow.

VINS compasses don't treally have a “bed” drawn on the compass house – it looks more like a shed. So the rhyme should go “put the red in the shed and head…”

Treasure Trek
Write up 3 clues on a course, send groups out to do 2 more clues.

You might want to write up the clues on the computer in big type, photocopy this onto card stock, cut up, punch a corner hole, put sets together with a book ring.

Make sure each new clue starts with a very clear identification of the spot kids are supposed to be at – in case any groups get lost. Each clue, then, should have three parts: clear identification of the place they should be, something to do there, and directions to the next place.

Read off the direction first and have everyone set their compasses THEN read the question. E.g. “Face East. Look to the East and if you are able, sit right down at a picnic __ .”

At each stop, give the children an orienting task to complete and record, such as "which direction is the sun?" "where is the wind coming from?" "what time is it?" "where is your shadow?"

Some towns place a puzzle piece at each station for kids to collect. At the end of the course, kids can put their puzzle together. Project Adventure (www.pa.org) sells big blank puzzles that towns can use to create their own topic-related jigsaw puzzle.

Compass readings to next place will vary somewhat depending on just where one stands. Remember to look out for steel fences and playground equipment!

Final Treasure Trek clue: "Hand in your compass to your ELF volunteers; Be sure to give them a great, big cheer!"

Place a snack at the end of each course to reward the kids for their good work!! In fact, this could be the next to last clue – where to find the food!

The following are some directions taken from different Treasure Trek courses of ELF programs around Vermont.

Sample #1
Fly to the west like a bird on the wing, then take a seat on the playground __.
For a puzzle piece, it's to the north you should go, under the tallest tree, now don't be slow!
Then head to the east if you are able and sit right down at the picnic __.
Walk to the south that's what you should do, a puzzle piece is near the colors red, white and __.

Sample #2
Walk north to the swing set. How many swings are there?
Head west to the storage shed. On the north side you will find many flowers. What color are they?
Walk uphill the picnic table. What kind of tree is growing nearby and providing shade?
Face the gazebo. What direction are you facing How many steps does it take you to walk to the gazebo.

Sample #3
Walk north to the stone bench. Who is it dedicated to?
Walk downhill to a grove of trees. What color is their bark?
Face to the west and walk towards the cemetery. Follow the fence to the right until you come to a sign. What does it say?
Walk south to a garden bed. How many kinds of plants are growing there?

Extensions
Make a pizza compass as a snack!

Children can make maps to a mystery place and swap maps so partner has to find the spot.

Bring in maps of your town and have children find out where they live.

Check out www.terraserver.com.

Challenge children (2nd-5th grade) to make a map from their home to the school. Even the youngest children can draw maps of a place that is special to them.

One volunteer made overhead pictures of nearby places for the kids to guess.

Learning Goals

Concepts/Ideas:

• People and other animals rely on cues from the environment to guide them as they travel in search of food, water, shelter or a safe place to raise their young.
• People can create a mental map or spatial image of their home areas; other animals also have a spatial memory of the area in which they live.
• When animals leave their home territory they rely on a combination of many different sensory cues for finding their way.
• Compasses have helped people to find their way for at least a thousand years. Using a compass we can locate the four cardinal directions, north, south, east, west and follow a course or locate places and features of the landscape.

Vocabulary:
Orientation, Navigation, Cardinal Direction, Compass, Magnetic Field, Sense of Direction

Skills:

• Active listening to understand some of the different methods animals use to find their way.
• Modeling to discover that prior observations and memory help us to locate familiar places and objects.
• Modeling and using a compass outdoors to locate the cardinal directions and to follow a course or locate features of the landscape.

Grade Expectations
Grades PK-K (S1, S2, S30) People and other animals use visual and sensory signs along with memory to help them to find food and water that they need to stay alive.

Grades 1-2 (S1, S30) People and other animals have the capability to use various visual, sensory and physical clues along with memory to orient them. This enables them to find what's needed to survive in their surroundings.

Grades 3-4 Animals, including humans, have physical and mental capabilities that make it possible for them to retain visual and sensory memories that help them locate food, water, shelter and mates. A magnetized compass needle points to the earth's magnetic north pole and can be used as a tool to locate direction.

Grades 5-6 A compass needle points to the magnetic north pole of earth. A compass can be used to locate cardinal directions, to follow a course and locate features of the landscape.

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