Mapping and Digital Storytelling in Grade 1

One of the joys of working with Grade 1 students is watching them connect big ideas to creative play. This year, we designed a project that blended mapping skills, storytelling, and early coding through the use of Bluebots. The result was a rich, hands on experience where students became both cartographers and storytellers.

The Project

We introduced students to the idea of maps as a way to represent the places we live and visit. Using both physical and digital examples, students explored what makes a map work: symbols, scale, and orientation. From there, they began creating their own maps in small groups.

At the same time, students were introduced to Bluebots, programmable robots that follow step by step sequences. They quickly discovered that just like maps, robots rely on direction and sequence to get from one place to another.

Building Skills Across Disciplines

This project connected to multiple areas of learning:

• Social Studies: Students used maps and simple models to represent cultural and environmental features of places.

• Writing: Students wrote simple narratives, sequencing events and using temporal words to tell their stories.

• Technology: Students practiced algorithmic thinking by coding their Bluebots with a sequence of steps. They also became creative communicators by using Book Creator to record their stories.

• 
  

How It Worked

• In Lesson 1, we introduced maps through books, digital tools, and brainstorming.

• In Lesson 2, students practiced moving Bluebots from point A to point B, learning how sequences of instructions create movement.

• In Lesson 3, they designed their own maps on chart paper, creating a grid that matched the 15 cm distance a Bluebot travels with each move.

• In Lesson 4, students combined it all by coding their Bluebots to move across their maps while telling a story of the journey. Using Book Creator, they recorded their retelling with images, narration, and movement.

Rather than coding the entire story, we had students program their Bluebots to stop at each event and retell as they went. This allowed the storytelling to stay at the center while still practicing the coding skills.

Why It Worked

This project was powerful because it blended different disciplines in an authentic way. Students were not just learning about maps, they were making them. They were not just writing stories, they were animating them with code. They were not just coding robots, they were using them to bring their own narratives to life.

The excitement in the room was contagious. Students were deeply engaged because the learning felt purposeful, playful, and connected to multiple areas of their world.