Our District and Our Country
Primary 3 · Social and Religious Studies
Our District and Our Country
Lesson 1 of 3
13 min
Let's begin
Uwase's cousin is coming to visit her school for the first time. She wants to tell him where everything is, but her letter is getting very long.
So she stops writing words. She turns the paper sideways and draws a little picture instead: the gate here, the classrooms there, the football pitch up at the top.
Her cousin looks at it for ten seconds and says, "Now I know your school." Uwase has just drawn a map. Today you will learn to read one, and to draw your own.
Imagine a bird flying high over your school. What does the bird see?
It does not see the front wall of the classroom. It does not see the door. It looks straight down, so it sees only the roofs, the paths and the ground.
A map is a drawing of a place made the way a bird sees it — from high above, looking straight down.
That is why things look different on a map. Look at these:
So remember: if your drawing shows a door, a window or the front wall, it is a picture. If it shows the place from above, it is a map.
A good map is not just a drawing. It has three helpers.
1. A title. Written at the top. It tells you what the map is of. Uwase wrote: Map of Rugando Primary School.
2. A key. A map is small, so we cannot draw every brick. We draw a tiny symbol instead. The key is the little box in the corner that tells you what each symbol stands for. It is like a small dictionary for your map. For example:
Without a key, a blue line is just a blue line. With a key, it becomes a river.
3. A direction arrow. This is the most important helper of all, and it is what the rest of this lesson is about.
"Turn left at the big tree." That sounds clear — but it is not. If you walk home the other way, your left is now on the other side! Left and right change when you turn around.
So maps do not use left and right. They use four directions that never move. They are called the cardinal points:
North, East, South and West.
North stays north whether you are standing, sitting or walking backwards. That is why every sailor, every pilot and every map-maker uses them.
They sit in a ring around you, in this order, going round like the hands of a clock: North → East → South → West and back to North.
You do not need a compass. You only need the sun.
The sun always rises in the east in the morning, and always goes down in the west in the evening. Always. Every single day of your life.
So here is what Mugisha does at seven o'clock in the morning:
In ten seconds, standing in his own yard, Mugisha has found all four cardinal points.
Now be careful with one thing. This trick only works in the morning, when the sun is rising. In the evening the sun is in the west, so if you face the setting sun, everything swaps: west is in front, east is behind, north is on your right and south is on your left.
Map-makers agreed on one rule so that nobody gets confused: on almost every map, north is at the top of the page. The arrow in the corner shows it.
Once you know that, the other three come free:
Here is Uwase's map, written out as a grid. North is at the top.
| West side | Middle | East side | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top (north) | Football pitch | Water tank | Vegetable garden |
| Middle | Library | Classrooms | Kitchen |
| Bottom (south) | Teachers' office | Gate | Toilets |
Now we can answer questions about the school without ever going there. Put your finger on the classrooms, right in the middle, and read off the directions:
And you can mix them. The football pitch is at the top on the left — so it is in the north-west corner. The toilets are at the bottom on the right — the south-east corner.
Try this today. Stand outside your home or your classroom and follow these steps.
It does not have to be beautiful. It only has to be true.
Tip
Never Eat Soggy Beans!
Say it while you point around a circle, going the way a clock goes: North, East, South, West. The first letters do the remembering for you.
And to find north without a compass: face the morning sun. You are looking east. Your left arm is pointing north.
Say your answer out loud first, then tap Show answer to check.
Ishimwe draws his house with a door, two windows and a roof. Is that a map?
Answer: no, it is a picture. A map shows a place from high above, the way a bird sees it — and a bird cannot see your door. From above, his house would just be a square.
Keza is facing the rising sun. Which direction is behind her back?
Answer: west. Facing the rising sun means she is facing east, and west is always the opposite of east.
On a map, north is at the top. The market is drawn on the right-hand side of the map. In which direction is the market?
Answer: east. The right side of a map is always the east side.
Look again at Uwase's school map. In which direction is the vegetable garden from the classrooms?
Answer: north-east. The garden is at the top of the map (north) and on the right-hand side (east), so it is in the north-east corner.
Uwase's map has a small blue line drawn across it. How can you find out what that blue line means?
Answer: look at the key. The key is the little box that tells you what every symbol on the map stands for. A blue line usually means a river or a stream.
Why do map-makers write "north" instead of "left"?
Answer: because left and right change when you turn around, but north never changes. North stays north wherever you are standing and whichever way you are facing.
Note
What you learned today:
Quick check
Start at North and go round like a clock. Put the cardinal points in order.
Tap the cards in the right order.
