A Map Is a Picture From Above
Atlas the friendly fox perches on a high shelf above a cozy bedroom, peering straight down and carefully drawing a simple map of the bed, the toy box, and the door onto a big sheet of paper.
- Explain that a map is a drawing of a real place.
- Describe that a map shows a place from above, looking straight down.
- Identify real places a map can show, such as a room or a yard.
- Match each real place to the simple map drawing that shows it from above.
Key terms
- map
- A drawing of a real place seen from straight above.
- top-down view
- What you see when you look straight down on something.
- real place
- A place you can actually walk into, like a room or yard.
- symbol
- A small simple shape on a map that stands for a real thing.
A Map Is a Drawing of a Real Place
A map is a special kind of drawing, and it always shows a real place, somewhere you could actually walk into. Your bedroom, your backyard, and your kitchen are all real places that a map can show. A map is not a made-up picture from someone's imagination, and it is not a photograph either. It is a careful drawing that helps you understand where things are in a real place.
Looking Down From Above
The most important idea about a map is the angle it uses. A map shows a place from above, looking straight down. Imagine you are a tiny bird floating near the ceiling, gazing down at the floor. You would see the top of the bed, the top of the toy box, and the top of the rug. A map draws exactly those top shapes, not the walls you would see from the side.
Big Places and Small Places
Maps are not only for huge places like countries. A map can show a tiny place, such as a single bedroom, or a bigger place, such as a park or a whole backyard. As long as the drawing looks straight down from above and shows a real place, it counts as a map. This is why you can make a simple map of your own room just by looking down at the floor.
Worked examples
Decide whether a side-view picture of a house is a map.
- A map must look straight down from above.
- A side-view picture shows the walls from the side.
- Showing walls from the side is not a top-down view.
- So a side-view picture is not a map.
Answer: No, a side-view picture is not a map.
Choose what shape a bed would look like on a map.
- On a map you look straight down at the bed.
- From above, the bed looks like a flat rectangle.
- You would not see the sides or the legs.
- So a bed appears as a rectangle on a map.
Answer: A bed appears as a flat rectangle on a map.
Activity
Match each real place to the simple map drawing that shows it from above.
Practice
Name two real places that you could draw a map of.
Explain why a map looks down from above instead of from the side.
Common mistakes to avoid
- A map is the same as a photograph.A map is a drawing seen from above, while a photograph is a picture taken with a camera.
- Maps can only show very big places.A map can show any real place, big or small, including a single bedroom.
Check your understanding
What is a map?
When we make a map, how do we look at the place?
Which of these can a map show?
Recap
A map is a drawing of a real place that you can walk into, and it always shows that place from above, looking straight down. Maps can show small places like a bedroom or bigger places like a yard, but they are never photographs or side-view pictures.
Reflect
If you drew a map of your room, what would you put on it first?