Finding a Spot on a Map Worksheet

A grid map turns a picture of a town into something a child can describe with two symbols. Letters run across the top, numbers run down the side, and every place on the map sits inside one lettered and numbered square. This finding a spot on a map worksheet gives third graders practice reading that grid in both directions: looking at a place and naming its square, and looking at a square and naming the place inside it. It is the same coordinate thinking students will later use for ordered pairs in math, introduced with a town they can picture.

This printable 3rd grade grid map worksheet is built around one six-by-four town map. Columns are labeled A through F and rows are labeled 1 through 4, and eight places are set inside the squares: a hospital, a library, a school, a fire station, a park, a bridge, a farm, and a pond. Part A asks students to write the grid square for four named places. Part B flips the task and gives the square, asking for the name of the place. Part C adds two thinking questions that ask students to count squares across a row and to look down a column. Use it during a map skills unit, as a social studies center, as morning work, or as a quick check before a geography quiz.

What’s Included

• 1 print-ready PDF worksheet
• Answer key
• 1 labeled six-by-four grid town map and 10 questions: 4 place-to-square, 4 square-to-place, and 2 reasoning questions

Three things make this resource work. First, one clear map anchors every question, so students build a mental picture of the town instead of decoding a new image for each item. Second, asking the question both ways, place to square and square to place, proves a student really understands the grid rather than guessing a pattern. Third, the Part C questions move from locating to reasoning, which is the step most map lessons skip. Together they make this finding a spot on a map worksheet a solid bridge between social studies map skills and math coordinate work.

Teachers and parents can stretch the skill without any prep. Tape a large grid on the floor and call out squares for students to stand in. Draw a grid over a copy of a local street map and ask where the grocery store or the post office lands. Play a guessing game where one player names a square and the other names the place. Ask students to add a new building to the map and write its square. Each one takes a few minutes and reinforces the same two-part address the worksheet teaches.

Related Resources

• Maps Worksheets
• Map Skills Worksheet
• Map Symbols Worksheet
• Community Song (Have Fun Teaching)