🐦 ⬇️ 🏠🌳🛣️ → 🗺️

A compound drawn in chalk as seen from above: square for the house, blobs for trees, a line for the path.

🎒 What you need

chalk, charcoal or a stick, and a flat patch of ground
stones and leaves as markers
somewhere higher to stand: a step, a wall, a low branch with an adult watching

✋ Do this

Stand somewhere a bit higher and look down at your compound or school yard. Not out — DOWN.
Notice what shape each thing is from above. A house is a rectangle. A tree is a circle. A path is a line. A goat is a small moving blob.
On the ground, draw the whole place as if you were the bird. Start with the biggest thing and work down.
Put a stone on your map where you are standing right now. Have a friend walk to a spot, and point to where they are on your map.
Add a north arrow using the sun: sunrise side is east. Every real map has one.
Now walk your route to the water point in real life, then draw that same route on your map as a dotted line.

💡 Why it works

This is exactly what a drone gives people: the straight-down view that turns a confusing place into a clear map. It is how a farmer counts how many trees are in a field, how people work out where a flood is spreading, and how someone plans a new road. The hard skill is not flying — it is reading what you see.

🔥 Challenge

Draw your map from memory, then go and check it. Mark every mistake in a different colour. Mistakes found are points scored.

📖 New words

aerial viewthe view looking straight down from above

mapa drawing of a place from above, with things in the right positions

🗺️

Sky Mapper

Tap when you have finished this module.