Learn Map Reading Skills with a Snack Map

We had fun this past week learning map skills together thanks to a recent conversation in the Horizon Healthy Families community.   Caroline of Food and Art had the idea of hiding food all around a room for kids to find – sounds like fun!   We decided to mix it up a bit and added a map.   My third child is obsessed with Dora and maps right now, this was the perfect activity for her!     Check out the community tomorrow evening – Thursday, 3/29 @ 8pm CST – we will be chatting all about healthy snacks on the go!

Map Skills for Preschoolers:

We looked at the map and I explained how to figure out where we are on the map and where the “landmarks” were (our couch, the dollhouse, the kitchen table, etc.). Then we filled our snack cups – loved using a muffin tin to help organize our activity.   The kids then went to the play room to count while I hid a snack in the livingroom.   When they came back I would mark where I hid the snack on the map and the kids would go “find” it.   They were fast!   After they found one snack they went back to the playroom and we repeated the process till all the snacks were found.

This was a yummy geography lesson.   Next time we do this I am going to try and map our entire house and the backyard to add some complexity.   I thought the map of my living room/kitchen would be complex enough for my almost 4 year old, but really, shegot the concept of how to read a map in seconds!   I wish I had their intuitive directional skills!

.

.
Do you have any fun ideas of ways to make snack time fun? How about tips on making snack time more convenient on-the-go? If so, I’d love it if you would join our chat tomorrow night! Thanks Horizon for encouraging families to be healthy.

Pssst… don’t miss out on this fun and educational activity: Learn how to make a compass with cork & needle!

You have to check out this super cool map activity!