Mapping My Community is a 5-page 3rd grade homework packet in four parts. Students review the compass rose and map symbols, then draw a map of their own street with a title, key, and roads. Next they write a walking route from home using direction words. The last part is a family talk about places where people live, work, and play. It supports C3 Framework D2.Geo.1.3-5, and the answer key gives sample answers and a checklist for grading maps.
D2.Geo.1.3-5
“Construct maps and other graphic representations of both familiar and unfamiliar places.”
Part 2, where students construct a map of their own neighborhood with a title, compass rose, and map key.
D2.Geo.3.3-5
“Use maps of different scales to describe the locations of cultural and environmental characteristics.”
Question 9, where students use their map to describe a route to a school, store, or park with cardinal directions.
Question 1 gives a word bank of East, South, and West and one blank: "The sun rises in the _____." Questions 2 and 3 ask which direction is behind you and to your left when you face North. Questions 4 to 6 ask what an open book, a playground slide, and a shopping cart stand for.
Students act as cartographers and draw their street, checking off a list for a title, a compass rose, a map key with at least three symbols, and roads.
Question 8 lists three community places near the map. Question 9 describes a route from home to one of them with North, South, East, and West and street names.
Questions 10 to 12 name places to live, work, and play. Question 13 asks the family member why a community needs all three.
Weekend homework
Send it home on a Friday. The map in Part 2 takes the longest, and a walk down the street first makes it far easier to draw.
Model the route
Write a sample route on the board before it goes home, like the key's walk north on Elm Street and east on Maple Avenue. Question 9 is where students get stuck.
Share day
When maps come back, pin them up and let students read each other's keys. The checklist in Part 2 doubles as your grading guide, one point per item.
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