In this program, children will sharpen their math skills as they play again in teams traveling from the East Coast to the West Coast. Children will sharpen their map skills by creating a map key to help them understand the symbols on the map. The concept of this program is based on a STEM program developed by Bedtime Math.
Recommended for grades 3rd and up or pair a younger child with an older child.
Supplies:
A giant U.S. highway map
West Coast and East Coast City Cards (Template can be found on the tool page).
Two Brown lunch bags
Dice
Matchbox cars
Card stock
Pencils/erasers
Markers
White board markers and erasers
Prep
Cut out East Coast/West Coast cards and place East Coast cards in a brown lunch bag labeled East Coast" and place West Coast cards in a bag labeled West Coast.
Make U.S cookies (cookie cutter ordered - Amazon)
Directions:
Depending on the size of the group, put kids in two teams.
Have children go to the story rug and read the book, How I Learned Geography by Uri Shulevitz. In this story, children will be introduced to the importance of a map.
After we read the story, put a map in the center of the story rug. Have them look over the map. Explain a Map key would help a person understand this map. Map keys help "unlock" map secrets.
Most maps are written in a kind of code. Colors, letters, numbers, and other symbols represent important places on a map.
Read part of the book, Map Keys by Olien and Map Scales by Olien.
Point out information that applies to this program.
Ask kids the following:
Can you find New Jersey on the map?”
What other states can you identify?”
Can you point to the West Coast states?
Can you point to the East Coast states?
Explain to kids the little blue and red shield symbols tell us the number each highway is named. (Point to one to show the kids.)
What do you notice about all the highways that run from east to west?” WAIT for the kids to notice that they all end in a zero.
How about the ones that run up and down, from north to south?” Again, WAIT for them to see that they all end in 5.
Give each team a pencil and a piece of card stock. Ask them to make a key that would help them understand the map they are looking at. This needs to also include the cardinal directions, north, south, east, and west. Ask someone to point to the "north" on the map, then the south, east and west.
Have them make the key using a pencil. Once the key is correct, have them go over the pencil in colored pencils/markers.
Now the fun begins.... Have one team member from each team pick a card from the East Coast bag. Have another team member pick a card from the West Coast Bag.
Have another team member pick a matchbox car.
Ask kids“Have any of you ever taken a road trip? Chances are you traveled on an interstate highway. That’s any highway that runs through more than one state, like from New York to New Jersey, or from your state into another. We’re going to find the cool number patterns they follow, then play a game that takes us across the U.S.!” Explain to kids they must travel from their East Coast city to the West Coast city using the roads.
The Game:
Your team’s car will travel from one yellow-dot intersection or gas station to another on the interstates.
You can drive in any direction, but no stopping in between!
The distances between yellow dots are measured in rounded hundreds of miles. Some stretches are shorter, only 100 miles, and others are longer, up to 500 miles.
The number you roll on the die tells you how many hundreds of miles you can drive at most. Example: if you roll a 3, you get to drive up to300 miles. And your total miles can be made up of more than one leg or stop at a gas station. In other words, you can drive through multiple dots or gas stations to reach your total miles.
You don’t have to use all the miles, but you don’t get to save any miles you don’t use. For example, if you roll a 4, you could drive 100 miles, or 200, or 300, or 400, but you can’t drive 500 or more. And if you drive just 300 miles, you don’t get an extra 100 for the future.
Each team starts with enough gas to drive 1,000 miles. On each turn, subtract the number of miles traveled from your running gas total. We’ll track everyone’s mileage on our white board.
You must have enough gas to make your move! If you roll a 4(400 miles),but have only 300 miles of gas, you can’t advance more than 300 miles. So how can we get gas?
1. Drive to a gas station and stop there. You can fill up to 1,000 –but you can’t drive any further. Your turn is over.
2.Roll a 6. If you roll a 6 you can either fill your gas tank to 1,000 or move 600 miles. You can’t do both.
3. The map shows only states ’initials. If you can name a new state you enter, you get an extra 100 miles of gas!
Think ahead -you don’t want to get stuck waiting for a 6!
First team to get to their city on the West Coast is the winner.
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