Nonfiction 5 Classwork #13

Work Hard. Be Nice. Find a Way.

[Type text]
 Excellent OK Awful

Why?
 You win the lottery and decide to buy an island. The National Geographic Society
would like a map of your new island to put in its collections. Your task is to design a
map of your dream island.

o R-Lottery winner

o A-National Geographic Society

o F-Map

o T-Political and physical features on maps

Criteria for Excellence

Categories ↓ Excellent=20 pts OK=15 pts Awful=10 pts

Map Features

Political Features

Physical Features

Appearance (CARE)

Participation
(GANAS)
Work hard. Be nice.
Direct Me!
By Trista L. Pollard
2
Knowing your way is very important. If
we did not know direction, finding our way
would be hard. Our planet has points, lines,
and areas. Right now you are sitting at your
desk reading this article. You are located at
a certain point in your classroom. Suppose
you want to sharpen your pencil? You can
see the sharpener on the wall. So, you get up
and walk along a path to the sharpener. You
have just traveled along a line. A line is a
path between two or more points. You have
also traveled in a certain direction. That
direction was toward the sharpener. The
sharpener is the other point.
3
Now suppose your desk is a part of a
group. You and the students in the group are
part of an area. So imagine our planet. Your
house is at a point on Earth. You travel
along a line to get to another point, your
school. Finally your school is in an area of
your town called a neighborhood. Now you
see why we need direction. We need to find
all of the points, lines, and areas on Earth.
4
Direction tells us which way to face as
we travel. When maps are made by
cartographers, they use cardinal
directions. Cardinal directions are the most
important points on a compass. A compass
is an instrument that has a magnet. This
magnet is attracted to the magnet in the
North Pole. (No, there isn't a bar magnet
sticking through the Earth!) There are rocks
inside the Earth that act like magnets. When
you hold the compass, its needle will point
Nonfiction 5 Homework #13
Help? 215-397-6394
to the magnetic North Pole. No matter
where you stand on Earth with this compass,
the needle will always point to the magnetic
North Pole. This is called due north.
5
If you were to turn around and face the
opposite way, you would face south. As you
may have guessed, you are also facing the
South Pole. Remember, this happened
because your compass needle pointed to
magnetic North Pole. To figure out the other
two directions, you need to face north again.
As you face north, to your right will be east.
West will be on your left. If you were facing
south, east would be on your left side and
west on your right side.
6
What if you did not have a compass?
Could you figure out the directions? Yes,
you can. They may not be exact, but they
will be close. The Earth turns on its axis.
The axis is an imaginary line that goes
through the center of the Earth. As the Earth
turns, half of it faces the sun. The other half
is in darkness or night. The sun appears to
rise and set in the sky. That is how we know
the Earth is turning. Well, the sun always
rises in the east. As you see the sun rise, you
are facing the east. Therefore, north will be
to your left and south to your right. If you
are watching the sun set or go down, then
you are facing the west.
7
Knowing cardinal directions helps us to
find locations. It also helps us to describe
where one place is in relation to another
place. So remember your directions as you travel on your way.

Directions: Read the passage on page 4. When you are done reading:
 answer the questions by underlining where you find the answer in the passage
 labeling what you underlined with the question number
 completing the answer below

REMEMBER: If you don’t underline where you find your answer, you will have to complete the
homework during lunch detention.

1. What is direction? 2. Compass needles are attracted to ______.

The magnetic South Pole
The horizon
The Earth's axis
The magnetic North Pole
3. If you are facing north, which side of your 4. If you are facing north, where is south?
body will face west?

5. FREE SPACE  6. The sun rises in the ______.

South
North
West
East
7. What is a point? 8. How are points different from areas?
Map Project: Criteria for Excellence

Categories ↓ Excellent=20 pts OK=15 pts Awful=10 pts

Map Features Includes all map Missing 1 map Missing 2 or more

 title features feature map features
 key/legend
 scale
 compass rose
 symbols
 labels
Political Features Includes all political Missing 1 political Missing 2 or more
 boundaries map features map feature map features
 cities, states,
countries
 capitals
 color to show
differences
Includes 7 or more Includes 5-6 different Has 4 or fewer
Physical Features different landforms landforms and bodies landforms and bodies
 landforms and bodies of water of water of water
 bodies of water

Appearance (CARE) Includes all 1 criteria from 2 or more criteria

 everything appearance criteria “excellent” is missing from “excellent” is
labeled missing
 written legibly
 colored
completely
 everything
related to the
RAFT
Handed in by end of Handed in by 4PM Handed in after
class Friday Friday Friday
Participation
(GANAS)