A journey into the wonderful world of maps.

Fantasy, real world and home made; all have their own uses and unique features.

This week you will learn how to use them, how to make them and how to find their

secrets!

Activity 1

• Draw a birds eye view map of your house/garden

• Label the rooms/furniture/features

• Think about scale and try to size the objects/areas relative to each other

• Try and cover as much of your house as possible. E.g. if you have more than one floor or you have a garden etc.

• I have provided an unfinished example on the next slide

Drive wayDrive way

Hal

l and

sta

irs

Door

Living room

Kitchen/ diner

Gar

age

Gat

e +

Path

Garden

Toile

t

Door

DoorDoors

Sofa

Sofa

Shel

f

Shel

f

Window

Lamp

TV u

nit

Tables+ plants

Book shelf

Activity 2• Treasure maps are often seen with the world of fantasy, especially with the world of pirates. Your challenge

today will be to draw a treasure map for an object hidden in your garden (or house if you prefer).

• Choose an item to hide for someone else to find.

• Draw a birds eye view map of the area that you have hidden the object in, try a less ‘blocky’ style than the last. A digital example of what I mean is on the next slide, but a sketch would be better.

• Put some clues in your chosen area for your participant to follow. The map is for you so you don’t lose the object!

• Mark your hidden object with a symbol (usually ‘X marks the spot’) and create a route for your participant to follow (using a dotted line). Lead them to the first clue and get them to follow the clues to figure out where the object is

• The main part of this task is drawing the map, so if you decide to not do the clues, that is fine. Or if someone cannot join in and hunt for the object, still draw the map and send it to me to have a look at. Maybe also save it for another time when people have time.

Activity 3• The world of fantasy maps is huge and full of exciting alternative realities to be

explored. In fact, most stories that happen in a reality outside of our own will be accompanied by a map of some sort.

• In my opinion, one of the best parts of a book is the map often included within the first few pages of a story. Check your books for examples of maps and see if you can find one.

• On the next slide I have included some examples of my favourite fantasy maps.

• Your challenge today is to create a fantasy map of an island from your imagination. These maps are perfect for story writing, which you might decide to do.

• I have included my own example as a 3 step guide. You might decide to follow these steps, or ignore them and just start drawing- either is fine!

Examples of fantasy maps:

How to Train Your Dragon

Marauder’s Map- Harry Potter

Middle-Earth-The Hobbit/ The Lord of the Rings

Start by doing some random dots. Not too many, try to keep it simple- you will see why in a moment.

Using ‘wobbly lines’, connect the dots. Just go with what feels right. Sketch lightly and you can edit as you go.

Add mountains, rivers, coasts, forests, lakes, islands, plains and deserts etc. Add colour and names if you want (e.g. Shiverspine Pass or Mossgloom Forest) You have now created a fantasy land that would be perfect for games/story writing.

Activity 4• This is more of an outdoor task. Draw a map of your walk either whilst you are on

it, after you have done it or plan it before hand.

• You could decide to use Google Maps to download maps of your local area and draw your route or you could use a more homemade style like the maps you have worked on this week.

• If you are planning your route, it might lend itself to the downloaded maps style of work, but if you are drawing as you go, a treasure map style might be more appropriate.

• Take notes as you go based on anything interesting that you see. Make sketches or take photos and turn it into a sort of diary of your walk. This is a nice way of recognizing what your local area has to offer!

Activity 5• You have looked at the skills needed to create a fantasy map like those in books like

Harry Potter, How to Train Your Dragon and The Lord of the Rings. Now it’s time to take it a step further!

• Its great to create an island/country to base your story on, but why not create a whole world?

• For this task you will need a pencil, paper, crayons and a handful of dried goods like rice (lentils, pasta or sweets like jelly beans would also work).

• Tip a pinch of rice at a time randomly on the paper and then when you are happy with the layout, draw around the shapes you have created.

• Once you have done this, add place names, colour and extra details as you see fit.

• Again, I have included my own example as a 3 step guide. You might decide to follow these steps, or ignore them and just start drawing- either is fine!

• Collect your dried good of choice

• Start sprinkling it around and finalizing your shapes, like the image on the right

• It wont look like much yet, but…

• When you draw around the shapes using the same ‘wobbly lines’ as last time, you start to create islands and countries.

• This suddenly becomes a really effective way to plan and draw a fantasy world.

• Especially when you start to add names. E.g. The Outer Islands, The Ocean of a Thousand Sails and The Kingdom of Denevore(these are the ones written on my example).

• Try to then add colour and the details that you used last time (rivers, mountains and plains etc.) These are not in the example, so I can’t wait to see what you do.