Getting the Right Coordinates

Grades 3-6 Social Studies – Geography and map skills: understanding longitude and latitude Each episode of Assignment: the World includes the geographic coordinates for the places that are featured in stories on the show. This little addition to the program provides a great opportunity for teachers to activate a deep understanding on how longitude and latitude are used to describe locations on the earth. This lesson is an introduction to how coordinates are written and how the grid lines of longitude and latitude appear on the spherical globe. Students use an orange, and a rubber band to position the lines themselves to promote kinesthetic understanding before locating coordinates on a globe or world map. The lesson includes a printable hand-out that explains the terms as well as the conventions for writing coordinates.