Find the Parts of a Map Worksheet

Every map a child will ever open is built from the same handful of parts, and a reader who can name those parts can use any map placed in front of them. This Find the Parts of a Map Worksheet teaches second graders the four elements that appear on almost every map: the title that names the place, the key that explains the symbols, the compass rose that shows direction, and the scale that shows distance. Naming those four parts is the doorway into every other map skill that follows, from reading a neighborhood map to finding a state on a wall map.

The Find the Parts of a Map Worksheet puts a real map on the page instead of asking students to imagine one. Part A shows a full-color map of Sunny Park with four map parts numbered and pointed out. Students use the word bank at the bottom of the page to write the name of each numbered part on its own line. Part B then sends them back into the map with three fill-in-the-bubble questions: one asks which part explains the symbols, one asks what the star on the map stands for, and one asks for the direction from the picnic area to the pond. Because the questions cannot be answered without actually reading the key and the compass rose, students practice using the parts, not just labeling them.

What’s Included

• A printable one-page worksheet with a full-color map of Sunny Park
• Part A: four numbered map parts to name using a word bank
• Part B: three fill-in-the-bubble questions answered from the map
• A complete answer key on the final page
• Built for 2nd Grade Social Studies map skills

This activity helps children in three ways. First, it gives every map part a name, so a teacher and a student can talk about a map using the same words. Second, it moves straight from naming to using, which is what turns vocabulary into a skill a child keeps. Third, it builds early spatial thinking, because reading a compass rose and a scale asks a student to hold direction and distance in mind at the same time.

Teachers can project the map and label the parts together before handing out this 2nd grade maps worksheet for independent practice, or use it as a quick check after a map lesson. Try following it with a walk around the school, then have students draw their own map of the playground with a title, a key, a compass rose, and a scale. Parents can pull out a road map or a zoo map at home and ask their child to point out the same four parts. Laminate a copy for a social studies center so students can practice with a dry-erase marker again and again.

Related Resources

• Compass Rose Worksheet
• Map Skills Worksheet
• Neighborhood Map Worksheet
• 50 States Song