Unit Plan 12 (Grade 1 Social Studies): Our Town on a Map
Explore how first graders use simple town maps to identify buildings, landmarks, and human-made features—like roads and bridges—and explain how people use these places in daily life.
Focus: Help students use local maps to identify buildings, landmarks, and human-made features like roads and bridges, and to explain how people use these places in everyday life.
Grade Level: 1
Subject Area: Social Studies (Geography • Community)
Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 30–45 minutes per session
I. Introduction
In this unit, students explore a simple map of a town (real or teacher-created) and learn to name and describe familiar places such as the school, library, park, fire station, grocery store, and roads that connect them. They practice telling what happens in each place and how people use these human-made features to live, work, and play. By the end of the week, each student creates a mini “My Town Map” that shows a few important places and labels what people do there.
Essential Questions
- What are some important places in our town or community?
- How can a map help us find and talk about these places?
- What are some human-made features (like roads, bridges, buildings) and how do people use them?
- Why is it helpful to know where buildings and landmarks are in our town?
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:
- Identify and name familiar places in a town (e.g., home, school, park, library, store, fire station).
- Tell what happens in each place (e.g., “We learn at school,” “People borrow books at the library”).
- Point to and name human-made features on a simple town map, such as roads, bridges, and buildings, and explain how people use them.
- Use a simple town map to locate at least two buildings or landmarks and describe where they are in relation to each other (e.g., “The park is next to the school”).
- Create a mini town map showing at least three buildings or landmarks with labels and short descriptions of their purposes.
Standards Alignment — 1st Grade (C3-based custom)
- 1.C3.Geo.1 — Identify and describe familiar places (home, school, neighborhood) and their purposes.
- Example: Tell what happens in the cafeteria vs. library.
- 1.C3.Geo.4 — Identify human-made features and explain how people use them.
- Example: Roads, bridges, buildings; “Bridges help us cross water.”
Success Criteria — Student Language
- I can name places in a town like school, park, library, fire station, store.
- I can tell what people do in those places.
- I can point to roads, buildings, and maybe bridges on a town map and tell how people use them.
- I can use a map to find where a place is and tell how it is near another place.
- I can draw my own town map with buildings and labels that show what happens there.