| Ask the students to describe a city they either live in or have
visited. Write the names of these cities on the board. Describe the
features of the city compared to their own city or town. Ask the
students if all the cities they have visited are the same size. Explain
that one of the differences between a city and a town is their size.
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| Explain to the students that it is impossible on a map of the United
States to show the streets and buildings in each town. Mapmakers use
symbols to show the location of the cities and towns shown on the map.
The size of the symbol tells us about how many people live in the city.
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| Circle the political map legend. A map legend is used to explain the
meaning of the symbols.
|
| Introduce the city symbols found in the map legend. Discuss the
meaning and size of each symbol. Emphasize that even though all cities
are not the same size, many of the same type of human activities take
place in all cities. Examples would be schools, playgrounds, streets,
traffic, etc.
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| Now find examples of each size city symbol on the United States Map.
Have a student find a very large city and another student write the name
of the city on the post-it-note. Put the post-it-note near the city on
the map. Do the same for the other city sizes.
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| If your city or town is not shown on the map, label it with a
post-it-note. Discuss the size of the symbol that should be used to
represent your city or town. Draw that symbol on the post-it-note with
the symbol and name of the city. Place the post-it-note on the map where
your city or town is located. Use other post-it-notes for other cities
or towns you have discussed which are not shown on the map. |
