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Explore a map on Family Literacy Day

Family Literacy Day is around the corner. Find out why introducing maps to your students and kids as a literacy-related activity is a great way to celebrate this special day that celebrates the importance of reading.

Family Literacy Day is held annually on January 27 to raise awareness about the importance of reading and engaging in other literacy-related activities as a family.

Introducing maps into your home or classroom is a great way to engage children in a literacy-related activity and to encourage them to explore important themes and current topics at a local, regional, national or global scale.

Maps can also help answer questions about the world around us and become more spatially literate. Map literacy is believed to be linked to a student’s academic and intellectual progress and map reading is an important skill included in K-12 curricula across Canada.

Help kids become spatially literate by learning how to read and understand maps such as this - Canada's Ecology map from ArcGIS Online.

Parents and educators can promote this special day by hosting literacy-related activities, such as:

  • Host a book swap
  • Ask students to lead a presentation about their favourite book
  • Explore a story map or Web map that focuses on a specific topic with your class or children
  • Create a story map on a favourite book by mapping locations of events that occur in the book
  • Create a story map on a current event by using a news article

Map Resources include:

Go to esri.ca/lessonplanner to find more resources to use with your students.

About the Author

Angela Alexander is a K-12 Education Specialist in the Esri Canada Education and Research group. She has over 15 years of experience working with educators across Canada. Angela focuses on producing geographic information system (GIS) and curriculum-specific resources, and conducting and creating custom workshops for educators. She manages the GIS Ambassador Program and is the Technical Chair for the annual Skills Ontario GIS competition. Angela also writes monthly posts for the Esri Canada Education and Research blog, highlighting K-12 educators and partners, new ArcGIS resources and GIS-related events.

Profile Photo of Angela Alexander