HyperMap - CA Regions Report Redesign


I teach fourth grade in California which means I teach all about California history and geography.
Traditionally my students have completed a research report on the four regions of California as a way to practice research, notetaking, and expository writing skills while covering the Social Studies standards. We would finish our unit by sculpting and painting salt-flour dough maps.


traditional research report - not too exciting
messy and disconnected from the content I wanted
my students to understand about each region


I realized this project needed a redesign. Enter Google Classroom and Google MyMaps!

To begin the research portion of the project, I provided a note-taking guide and a HyperDoc that outlined the whole project. We used a combination of online sources and our textbook. 
Rough drafts were typed in a Google Doc that was assigned in Google Classroom.
We worked on writing and editing our expository paragraphs in the Google Doc and this became the content we added to our MyMap.

Once the research and writing portion of the assignment was done, I taught my students how to use Google MyMaps. We drew shapes of the four regions, added pins to mark significant locations. The research paragraphs were copied from the Google Doc and pasted into the description for the shape. The shapes and pins were organized in layers. Students were able to customize their maps by adding pictures and making custom markers.

My Google Classroom Assignment had a lot of components and students appreciated having access to all the required materials in one place. For students who struggled with drawing shapes on the Google Map, I created a map template that they were able to copy and then customize with their own colors and labels. There was also a project rubric that students were able to review as they completed the assignment. When students were done with their map, they could add it from their drive to the Google Classroom assignment to turn it in.



I'm so proud of the work my students have done on this project. Talk about taking an elementary research project up a notch!

What other ideas do you have for using Google MyMaps in your classroom?

My next idea is for students to use it for a biography report. Presenting a person's significant life events on a map would provide a much bigger impact and give the events more context.
Another project I have in mind is using MyMaps for early California explorer reports.

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