Day 8: Map People "Where I've Been"

Today, I was supposed to make something out of the pages of a book.  No lack of ideas for this one!! My problem for this one was that I had so many things I wanted to make and I had to choose just one.

I'm actually seasoned in making things out of book pages, including:

A Book Letter for my friend Melissa:

A Musical Pumpkin Coach made out of Paper Mached Music:

A Wedding Memories Box made out of Paper Mached Music:

A 'Places We've Been' book for my friend Edie made out of an atlas:

And one of my favorites... a Musical Wreath made out of Sheet Music: 

I had a plethora of more ideas, including a butterfly mobile, an atlas frame, and a 'Where I'm From' poster.  I was getting down to the end of my day and settled on the last one.  My idea was to go off of the idea of a man and woman shape in a frame made out of the map of where they (the husband and wife are from).  Instead, I was going to have my students cut themselves out of a map or an atlas of where they are from.

I started there, but an original idea developed as I worked.

There are so many ways you could work with this!  

You could have students cut out a shape out of a map of the favorite place they've been, or places they want to go...

or you can do what I started:

"Where I've Been" Doll Chain:

To make this, just trace a template of a girl or a boy on a map of a place you have been/you are from/you want to go/ etc.  Cut it out, then glue the hands of the people together so it looks like a doll chain.  For someone who has been a lot of places, it will make a really long chain, not to mention look awesome.

This would be an interesting project for students to do when studying maps or geography.  For students who haven't been many places, they can include places they would like to go.

I haven't finished my project, but each map can be labeled as well (the maps I have so far are England, Florida, Ireland, and New York).

My favorite idea to do this would be to have every student connect their dolls together and see if they can make it all around the classroom. Each student can have their name and label on each of their dolls. This would be a good way to talk about the different countries of the world or the different states of the United States, as well as the differences between cities, states, and countries.

This is a WONDERFUL multi-genre project, and a 'WHERE I'M FROM' project would be pretty awesome for an ESOL classroom or a classroom that has a lot of different backgrounds.

Oh, I almost forgot.  Of course, students can print out a map to cut their person out on, it doesn't have to be a physical map or atlas.  This would also be really cute with pictures of the place in the background (ex a girl cut out of a picture of the Eiffel Tower for Paris) or pictures of the student in the place!  So many options!!!

This is actually one of my favorite ideas I have come up with, and I can't wait to put it to use, as well as finish my  own doll project! I'll post a picture when I'm done!!!

Enjoy :)

Amy

ps. An atlas is a book!!!!