My Neighborhood Drawing

Third grade students in my school have a neighborhood theme with their reading work right now, so I thought I’d try out a map-type project for them. It worked well as students began with some guidelines but then were then left to add things on their own. 1. Each student got an 11" x 17" sheet of cardstock paper, printed with very light gridlines you can download HERE. I had cardboard rectangles (8.5" x 5") for students to stack and trace to divide the paper into 3 sections.2. The middle block was saved for our school, drawn flat to keep things simple. Streets and cars could be added, but no people as they often turn out to be a distraction.3. The “block” above and below could be any building in the area, drawn in pencil and then traced with marker.4. Art was filled in with colored pencil. I liked how students were engrossed in remembering all the buildings in our area as they made their art.