Land Ho!! Mapping Fun

We had SO much fun today friends!  We started our unit on mapping/my place in this world.  To get them excited about it we always do a little experiment/predicting activity.  I ask the kids, ” Do you think there is more land or water on earth?”  The first activity we did was from my mapping unit and it turned out so to be so fun.  My kids really enjoyed it.

Before we started the lesson we discussed what a prediction was and made one about the earth/globe.  Do you think there is more land or water on earth?  They wrote what they thought on the line.  Then we sat on the rug and let the fun begin.

Here is the graph we started to work on.  I called the kids up and they each took a turn spinning the globe with their eyes closed.  Next they put out their finger to see what it landed on when the globe stopped spinning.  Of course the kiddos that predicted water were cheering for anyone that landed on water and the ones that predicted land were sure to cheer for the times their finger ended up on land.

How precious is this little one?!?

And the spinning continues…

Of course I’m coloring in the graph as they are spinning…

and the winner is…

Water of course…but {we} already knew that. :o)

Then we went back to our desks and we discussed how it’s okay to be wrong about a prediction — scientists make wrong predicitions all the time…and we circled thumbs up or thumbs down whether our prediction was correct or not.  Then we drew and colored a globe and wrote a fact that we learned.

This is the first year I created the unit to go with it and I have to say this was a fun way to introduce mapping.

If you are interested in this fun, engaging pack you can grab it here.

What fun things are you guys up to in your classrooms?