3rd Grade Google My Maps Project

Since I noticed our students had access to the My Maps feature I have wanted to find a way for them to use it.  Our 3rd-grade students do a social studies project where they research different countries and I thought this would be the perfect way to begin working with this tool.  I have some great 3rd grade teachers who are willing to take the plunge with trying new tools so we gave it a shot.  The students did their research with the teacher using Culture Grams, which is a great tool provided by our district and filled out the required information into a brochure template that I created in Google Drawings.  The students took it upon themselves to add their own personal touches, which I absolutely LOVE, and when they were finished they took screenshots of their work and we added all of the brochures to one Google Slides presentation to share with parents.  Here are a few brochure page examples.

Once the brochures were complete the students were given the link to the teacher’s Google Map through Google Classroom.  The students created a marker for each of the areas on the brochure.  They titled the marker, added a description with information from their brochure and then added at least one picture that showed that particular topic.  It was awesome to see all of the students working simultaneously on one map and adding all of their markers and information.

If the students finished entering all of the information early they had the opportunity to add more photographs and to personalize their markers by changing the icons and colors.  They were so focused and engaged in this project it was a joy to watch them work.  When they finished, they took the time to visit a classmate’s country and learn about that country by reading their classmate’s informational markers.  We then embedded the map on the teacher’s website so the parents could see the students work.

This was a great project and I hope to help teachers do it again with students next year.