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Year 6 Geography — Reading a map

Find the four things nearly every map carries — its title, its direction arrow, its key and its scale — and use the key to say what a symbol or a colour on the map stands for.

Name: ________________________

  1. 1.Why does a map use small marks instead of drawing everything as it really looks?

    • a) Because a map is always drawn by a machine
    • b) There is nothing like enough room on the paper to draw every real thing
    • c) Drawing things properly is against the rules of map making
    • d) Because most people cannot recognise a drawing of a building

  2. 2.Which part of a map lists what each mark and colour on it stands for?

  3. 3.Put these steps in the order you would use them to work out how far apart two towns really are, using a map.

    • Measure the length between them on the paper
    • Write down the real distance on the ground
    • Find the two towns on the map
    • Read what the scale says that length stands for

  4. 4.This map's key gives blue for water, green for low flat land, and brown for high land. Sort each thing on the map by the colour it would be drawn in.

    Groups: Blue · Green · Brown

    • A river
    • A lake
    • A mountain range
    • The sea
    • A high snow-covered peak
    • A plain
    • Flat farmland beside a village

  5. 5.What is a map?

    • a) A photograph taken from the side of a hill
    • b) A model of the whole earth, round like the earth itself
    • c) A drawing of a place as it would look from above
    • d) A list of the places in a country

  6. 6.A physical map shows the natural land — where the mountains, plains and rivers are. A political map shows what people have drawn on it — borders, regions and cities. Which map would show each of these?

    Groups: A physical map · A political map

    • The administrative centre of each region
    • The name of every region
    • Where the mountains rise
    • The border between two regions
    • The course of a river
    • Where the plains lie

  7. 7.Which of a map's four helpers do you need if you want to know how far apart two places really are?

  8. 8.A map has no direction arrow drawn on it anywhere. What can you no longer be sure of?

    • a) How far apart the places on it are
    • b) What each of its marks stands for
    • c) Which way up the map is meant to be read
    • d) Which place it is a map of

Answer key — Year 6 Geography — Reading a map

  1. 1. b) There is nothing like enough room on the paper to draw every real thing
  2. 2.
    • the key
    • key
    • the legend
    • legend
  3. 3. 1. Find the two towns on the map 2. Measure the length between them on the paper 3. Read what the scale says that length stands for 4. Write down the real distance on the ground
  4. 4. A river → Blue; A plain → Green; A mountain range → Brown; A lake → Blue; Flat farmland beside a village → Green; The sea → Blue; A high snow-covered peak → Brown
  5. 5. c) A drawing of a place as it would look from above
  6. 6. Where the mountains rise → A physical map; The border between two regions → A political map; Where the plains lie → A physical map; The administrative centre of each region → A political map; The course of a river → A physical map; The name of every region → A political map
  7. 7.
    • the scale
    • scale
  8. 8. c) Which way up the map is meant to be read