Objectives
- The students will learn to identify the symbol for cities
- The students will locate specific cities on the World Political Map
Vocabulary
city population symbols
Materials Needed
World Political map, map marker, post-it-note with the following:
"___________is a very large city."
"___________ is a large city."
"___________ is a smaller city."
Lesson
Ask the students to describe a city they either live in or have visited. Write the names of the cities mentioned on the board. Ask the students to describe the type of activities that take place in these cities. Examples might be traffic, big buildings, etc. How are the cities mentioned the same? How are they different?
Pull down the World Political Map. Examine the map to see if any of the cities mentioned are shown on the map. Explain to the students that there are many, many cities in the world. Only a limited number can be shown on a world map. Map makers use symbols to represent cities and to show where they are located.
Circle the Political Map legend. Introduce the city population symbols found in the legend. The legend explains the meaning of the symbols. When used on the map, the symbol shows us where the city is located and approximately how many people live there.
Find an example of each city symbol on the World Political Map. Have one student find a very large city and another student write the name of the city in the space on the " __________is a very large city" post-it-note. Do the same for other post-it-notes. Make sure the students also identify the name of the country in which the city is located.
If your city or town is not shown on the map, use a blank post-it-note. Discuss the size of the symbol that should be used to represent your city. Draw the city symbol on the blank post-it-note of your city. Use other post-it-notes for other cities you have discussed which are not shown on the map.