How To Read a Map? Develop Map Skills for Kids with Free Printable

Going on a road trip soon? You must’ve thought of a few road trip games and even packed a few road trip essentials too. But what about a road map? Sure, you have those in your phones, not a big deal! But do you remember the older, simpler times when we used a physical road map to navigate?

Skills like reading maps for kids can help them develop their spatial thinking.¹ Spatial skills allow kids to visualize the location of an object and their shapes, the object's relation with other objects in space, and the paths it takes as they move.

Road maps or maps, in general, help kids pinpoint their place in the world, literally. The “how to read a map” skill can help kids to picture different places, cities, countries, and their relationship to one another.

Worksheets are a great way to reinforce concepts and skills kids learn in school or life—be it math, reading, writing, cognitive, spatial, or even learning to read an offline map. So to help kids develop map skills, we have a free printable with different activities related to reading a map. So the next time you go on a road trip, your kid can guide the way using the U.S. road map.

A sneak peek of the list of activities included in the Free Printable PDF below:

Activity 1: Read the map and guess the location

Activity 2: Match the cities with their shadows

Activity 3: Color the land green and the water blue on the map

Activity 4: Help place the right color car at its designated spot using the clues 

Activity 5: Use your imagination and draw a map to your treasure chest

So what are you waiting for? Let’s go offline and read a map together!

Also read: National Thesaurus Day | Free activity

Click on the image below to download the Free Printable👇.

Head over to byjuslearning.com to learn more about our Active Learning approach to Math, Language, and Reading for children between Pre-K and Grade 3.  

Sources:

1. Introducing Geography and Reading Map Skills to Kindergarten Children by using Large-Scale Giant Maps. (n.d.). Introducing Geography and Reading Map Skills to Kindergarten Children by Using Large-Scale Giant Maps. https://airccse .com/ ije/ abstract/ 9421ije01 .html