Have you ever looked down from a tall slide, a hill, or an airplane window? Things look different from up high. You see the tops of things: roofs, treetops and the tops of cars.
Key idea
A map is a drawing of a place as if you were looking down on it from the sky.
Why it works
A picture from the side shows the fronts of things, and the things in front hide the things behind them. From above, nothing hides anything else, so you can see where everything is. That is why every map looks down.
Worked example: What can a map do?
You want to walk to the park in Maple Town. How can the map help?
- Find the park on the map: the green square with trees.
- Find where you are starting.
- Now you can see which way to go.
Answer: The map shows where the park is, so you can find the way.
Common mistake
Some children think a map is like a photo of the front of a house. A map shows the top of the house, the roof, because it looks down from above.
For the grown-up. Stand on a chair together and look down at a table. Name what you see: the top of a cup, the top of a book. Then draw it on paper: that drawing is a map.