Chaparral students able to see America without leaving school




ROAD TRIP—Chaparral Elementary School students are well-traveled. The children have been able to walk the United States from coast to coast, and visit the far reaches of the continent thanks to the National Geographic’s traveling map exhibit. The map of North America is 26 by 34 feet and nearly covers the floor in the school’s multipurpose room. The map exhibit comes with suggested lesson plans and activities. A traveling map of Asia visited the school last year.

ROAD TRIP—Chaparral Elementary School students are well-traveled. The children have been able to walk the United States from coast to coast, and visit the far reaches of the continent thanks to the National Geographic’s traveling map exhibit. The map of North America is 26 by 34 feet and nearly covers the floor in the school’s multipurpose room. The map exhibit comes with suggested lesson plans and activities. A traveling map of Asia visited the school last year.

Children at Chaparral Elementary School in Calabasas and Yerba Buena Elementary School in Agoura Hills have been traveling through North America on a giant 26-by-34-foot map, large enough to almost cover the school’s multipurpose room.

The map is part of a National Geographic Society program sponsored by the society’s Grosvenor Council, an international group of individuals who donate $1,000 or more annually. The council’s financial support helps pay for expeditions, scientific field work, conservation programs and educational series like the giant map, which travels to schools throughout the country. Maps of Africa, Asia and North America are available.

A large map of Asia was the first to travel to Chaparral in 2009. Chaparral third-grade teacher Linda Yollis is related to Grosvenor council member Ingrid Hanzer of Brentwood. Hanzer’s two grandchildren attend Yerba Buena; Yollis is the sister of Hanzer’s son-in-law.

“Ingrid is a seasoned world traveler, a National Geographic Grosvenor Council member and philanthropist,” Yollis said. “Mrs. Hanzer recognized the value of this new teaching tool and chooses to sponsor its use at Chaparral and Yerba Buena.”

The room-sized map helps young students learn geography, said Yollis, who has coordinated the program for both schools for two years.

“The map comes with suggested lesson plans and activities that provide kinesthetic learning experiences for students,” Yollis said. “(Students) are encouraged to take off their shoes and walk across the United States. Many students jumped from one state capital to another, while others traced the course of the Mississippi River watershed.”

The map, Yollis said, helps children understand the differences between cities, states, countries and continents.

Students have written about the map on the classroom blog.

Trent wrote that he enjoyed climbing Mount McKinley. “Also, my favorite part of the map was when we made the Mississippi River flow out into the Gulf of Mexico.”

Some students posted a joint message on the blog about the map. Gal, Ethan and Lexi wrote, “We always knew the Mississippi River was big, but not that big. We also learned that the Mississippi River has many tributaries. One tributary was the Arkansas River, and another was the Ohio River. The biggest tributary was the Missouri River. That’s a big watershed!”

Stephanie Shipow, a fifth-grade teacher at Chaparral, also had praise for the traveling map.

“Having a hands-on or, in this case, feet-on visual aid to support the instruction really helped to make sense of a pretty abstract concept,” Shipow said.

Chaparral Principal Somer Harding said, “(For children) to be able to ‘walk’ the mighty Mississippi or stand in all four corners of the four corner states, jump from Canada, through the United States and down to Mexico all reinforce for students the scale and juxtapositions of countries and the geographic features of a region.”

Sandy Fleishman, a fourth/fifthgrade teacher at Yerba Buena Elementary School, said every class at her school visited the map.

“Some lessons were suited for primary grade students, such as ‘Simon Says . . . walk on a given state,’” she said. “Other activities were more complicated, involving critical thinking, where students made inferences regarding the growth of a country.”

Theo, a student from Lindero Canyon Middle School in Agoura Hills, posted a comment on the Yollis classroom blog: “I think it is great that (Mrs. Hanzer) sponsored the map for the school,” Theo wrote.

Hanzer said because the map is huge, a “whole class can walk around on it.” As for her grandchildren at Yerba Buena, she said they “love it.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *