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You might not realize it, but field trips are a fantastically easy way to practice early map skills! Often, maps are available free of charge and kids love to lead the way!

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Using Field Trips to Practice Map Skills

Our Visit to Story Land in Glen, NH

I absolutely adore when I can share one of my childhood loves with my children. When I was a little girl, I grew up going to Story Land every summer.

Story Land is a family-friendly fairytale theme park that includes rides, games, theatrical performances, play spaces, and oodles of familiar character. Nestled in Glen, NH, it is a perfect New England field trip for imaginative little kiddos like mine.

Story Land is a fantastic field trip for New Englanders who have book-obsessed children. And, it’s a perfect complement to the three of the books we’ve been using in our map skills unit study:

The Once Upon a Time Map Book: Take a Tour of Six Enchanted Lands

The Scary Places Map Book: Seven Terrifying Tours

Pirate Treasure Map: A Fairytale Adventure

My kids were over-the-moon excited to head to Story Land again this summer!

Practicing map skills during our field trip to Story Land

Field trips provide a perfect opportunity for practicing those new map skills! Simply give your children a map of the location and let them plan the day – together!

Leo leads the way!

When using your field trip map, be sure to practice all those new vocabulary words! Can they find a compass rose? The map grids, key, and scale? Can they plan the most efficient route? Make it a fun game and rest assured that your children will be learning and making memories!

Also, be sure to check out those tourist kiosks for more maps. My kids love to raid the kiosks and then go on wild adventures, using the maps they have collected from our vacation:

Here are just a few of the memories we made this year at Story Land

The Old Woman in the Shoe

Sweet T takes the wheel.

Hanging with my little poppies.

It’s not every day that CINDERELLA signs your cast!

Sometimes, your children surprise you by putting skills to good use

Schizz and I were happily surprised to see that Leo was a lot better at waiting in lines this summer than he was last year. How did he survive those long lines, you wonder? Mindfulness! On his own, he started doing [speedy] sun salutations while waiting in line.