Studying the Map of Woolwich

There has been a lot of excitement in the air as we kicked off a new social studies unit; a mini-expedition on Transportation History in Woolwich. To build our background knowledge we spent the week working with maps of Woolwich.  Students had time to explore and become familiar with the layout of their hometown.  They found the roads they live on, located important waterways and bordering towns/cities and several landmarks.  We were impressed with the focus, enthusiasm and high level of interest in these 

work sessions all week long.  As the week progressed we began to ask children to relate some of the map information to their lives (i.e. Which bordering towns do you go to most often and why?  Which waterways do you “use” most often and why?).  The week ended with making important observations about Woolwich, such as, “There are a lot of roads in Woolwich,” or “There are so many waterways in Woolwich,” or “The Kennebec River is really long!”  

Using a highlighter to mark findings

Magnifying glasses helped us see small details