Neighborhood Map Machine

Neighborhood Map Machine

Create New Map:

Students create maps of real or imaginary places. They draw roads and add
buildings, landmarks, lakes, parks, trees, people, and more. Students can also
attach pictures or movies of actual buildings.

Explore:

Students click compass points to travel around and explore maps. They can
click buildings or objects to get a closer view. They can use text and paint
tools to highlight their routes and add comments.

Mystery:

Students follow directions to uncover clues as they complete mystery
challenges that involve and understanding of geography skills and concepts.

Ready-Made Activities

There are many activity maps already created that correlate to Social
Studies, Math, and Language Arts

Print Goodies:

There are 32 printable files including 3D paper cutouts of all of the building
map symbols as well as blank grids and a compass rose.

Neighborhood Map Machine Page 1
Salem Instructional Technology Resource Teachers
April 2007

How to Create a Map:

1. Decide how what size you’d like for your map to be
and click OK.

2. Click on the road tool.
Select the type of road, path, railroad, etc. that you’d like to add.

Click and drag to create your roads or paths on the grid. To
change the name of the road, double click the road. Type in a
new name and click OK.

3. Click on the building tool.

Select a building type. You can hover over each
building to see what it represents. Then Click on
the map to add the building(s). Buildings are given
street numbers, but they only show on the screen if
you change the program preferences under the
teacher menu.

Neighborhood Map Machine Page 2
Salem Instructional Technology Resource Teachers
April 2007

4. Add trees to the map by clicking the tree tool.

Hover over each tree to discover its type.
Click on the map grid to add the tree(s).

5. Add people and small objects by clicking this icon.

Once again, hovering gives the name of the object.
Click on the map to add object(s).

6. Click the water tool to add water to your map. (blue circle)

Select the type of water you want to add. Then click and
drag anywhere on the map. You can create bodies of
water in almost any shape.

Neighborhood Map Machine Page 3
Salem Instructional Technology Resource Teachers
April 2007

7. Add landforms to your map. (green square)

Hover over each icon to see what it represents.
Click and drag to add parks, hills, deserts, and
mountains, fields, and parking lots to your map. You
may choose from 3 different shapes for each
landform: rectangular, oval, and freeform.

8. The Select tool allows you to select an object on your map.
To delete an object, just select it and press the Delete key.

9. Set the Scale of your map by clicking the scale at the bottom of the
map.

When the Scale dialog box appears, edit as you desire and click OK.

Switching to Metric Measurements

If you prefer to work in metric, click on Teacher in the menu bar at
the top of the screen.
Select Teacher Preferences
Click the Program Preferences tab.
Check Metric Scale

Neighborhood Map Machine Page 4
Salem Instructional Technology Resource Teachers
April 2007

Measuring Distances

Click on the ruler.
When you click on an object on the screen, a measurement window will
appear. As you click from one object to another on the map, the
measurement window will show the total distance between those two objects
using the scale that you have set up.

Paint Tools

Click on the paint palette.
The following tools become available:

The pencil draw a thin line on the map. When you click it, you’ll have
several colors from which to choose.

This draws a straight line. Holding down the Alt or Shift key will help
you draw a vertical or horizontal line.

The highlighter lets you draw with a wide transparent marker.

The text tool allows you to type labels. Click Change Font to select font
and size. Click on the map to add text.

The eraser tool will erase anything you’ve created with the paint tools.

The marquee tool allows you to select an area to move things you’ve
created with the paint tools.

Student Marker

The red arrow is the “you are here” marker. It is automatically placed on the
first road or path you draw. To move it, just click and drag.

Getting Back to the Main Menu Page 5

The Done arrow will take you back to the opening menu.

Neighborhood Map Machine
Salem Instructional Technology Resource Teachers
April 2007

Map Key

Click the map key to see the collection of symbols. Click a symbol to hear its
name spoken.

Exploring a Map

Click the Explore button in the upper left hand corner of the screen or
select it from the opening menu.

The red arrow indicates where you are on the map. Click on points on the
compass rose to move the red arrow. As you pass a building, it may light up
indicating that you can get a closer look with imported graphics and sound.

When you open a map to Explore, the Notebook on the left will have text in
it. Students are able to type into this notebook if they need to add
information to their maps.

Printing a Map

Click the Print button in the lower left corner. A print preview box appears.
You can add your name and a title for the map at this point. There are
several other printing options available on this screen.

Solving a Mystery

Click the Mystery button or select it from the opening menu. Read the
opening notebook text for your first clue.
Click the compass points to move around the map.
Click the highlighted buildings and then click See Clue to see if there is a
clue.
To guess the secret location, travel to that place. Click the object and then
click Guess.

Neighborhood Map Machine Page 6
Salem Instructional Technology Resource Teachers
April 2007