On my love of maps

I have always loved maps and this love has only deepened since I began using Mantle of the Expert in my teaching. I was feeling so happy about my recent use of a map (and slightly surprised/relieved at how effective it was) that I decided to share my joy.

Previously, in mantle

My  R/1 class has been a team of Park Keepers for a while, helping out Percy the Park Keeper. Initially they were helping him with woodland animals but more recently he has had a worrying gruffalo problem to deal with.

Anyway, we'd reached the point where we'd caught the gruffalo but now it was sitting somewhere at the top of our classroom and refusing to come down. He just didn't like being indoors; he wanted to go back to the woods. We'd made him a den at the edge of the woods as a compromise. 

The session and the map
When the children came in after lunch, I had removed the gruffalo from its high spot. I also had a large sugar paper map on the board. The children quickly spotted that the gruffalo had gone but were equally interested in the map. 

We spent some time talking about the map - the children quickly identified that it was our woodland. I pointed out 'my' (Percy's) hut and said of the gruffalo:

"Yes, he's gone back to the woods, I've been tracking him." I was attempting to be in role as Percy but not explicitly so. "I saw the him recently - here." On the map I put a small cut-out of a gruffalo. 

And this is where the map performed its magic. 

These small children - mantling only for a few weeks - had seen the gruffalo before lunch, in our classroom. I was telling them that, in the story, I (Percy) had seen the gruffalo in the woods. I turned to them and said: "Park Keepers, I know you've been looking after the woods. Have you seen the gruffalo around lately?" There was moment of slightly confused silence. I was asking them to take quite a leap, imagination-wise. 

I invited them to come and mark on the map where they'd seen the gruffalo, using a small cut-out like mine, and that made the difference. One child immediately came forward and put her gruffalo on the map - she said she'd seen him in the river, swimming. Gradually, all but around around three children came up and indicated where they'd seen the gruffalo; up trees, in rivers and swamps, climbing on rocks. 

The map helped the children to make believe that the gruffalo was now in the woods again, that they'd seen the gruffalo and that he was having a quite lovely time. Through it, they could visualise the woods and the gruffalo. It was almost like a portal back into the story, and a way to play around with time.

From there, I introduced the problem I had: since the gruffalo had returned to the woods, my daily mouse count had been lower and lower. The Park Keepers are working on a solution.


Previous pleasing map uses.

If you also love maps and their use in mantle, see:

A post about a mini Peter Rabbit mantle here. 

Two posts about a Great Fire of London mantle here and here. 

My Mantle colleague on Twitter, @WinterImagines