Drawing Floor Plans and Maps

Purpose: To ask students to apply ideas they are learning while using creativity and improving map reading skills.

Prep Time: 5 to 25 minutes, depending on whether you need to create your own template.

Materials: Floor plan or map template and a projector.

Prep: If necessary, design a template that fits well with the lesson topic or use the one provided below; make copies of the floor plan or map template.

Procedure: This activity works best towards the end of a unit of study in which students are learning about places or map reading. Topics that work well include apartment hunting, food shopping, community resources, or following directions. This tutor tip will outline the steps for a food shopping unit.

1. Review the various sections in a grocery store and what types of items may be found in each section.
2. Describe the location of sections in a grocery store where you shop.
3. Students talk to partners about the sections in the stores where they shop. You may wish to write these questions on the board to guide the discussions:
   • What do you see when you walk in the door?
   • Where is the produce?
   • Where are the frozen foods?
   • Where is the bakery?
   • What else is in the store? Where is it?
4. Use a projector to show students the grocery store template. Model for students how to label the parts of the store on the map.
5. Project a clean copy of the template and invite a few students to come up to the map and label the parts with their own ideas.
6. Give students copies of the templates to fill in.
7. As students finish, they can describe what they wrote to partners.
8. Suggested follow up: If time allows, have students work in pairs. Give student A a blank template and student B will describe their store to student A as a dictation exercise.

Variation: For an extra challenge, students can create a map or floor plan without a template. Provide them with rulers, pencils, etc.