Dear Cartographers,

Today we’ll make a map of our classroom. The main job of mapmakers is the same main job of readers, writers, mathematicians, and problem solvers: figure out what’s most important.

We can’t include everything from our classroom in our map. We have to make decisions about what objects make our classroom into a classroom. What items are essential to “classroom-ness”?

Mapmakers also add things to their maps. In the real world, there’s no line between Colorado and Wyoming, but on a map it is essential.

We’ll also make our maps to scale. That means we’ll shrink everything in our classrooom down in the exact same way and fit it on a piece of paper.

Sincerely,

Mr. H