Learning with Little Man in the Map: Part One

I was recently given The Little Man in the Map by E. Andrew Martonyi for review at The Curriculum Choice and my kids are loving it! This is by far, the best strategy I have seen to help kids learn how to recognize the States on a map. I am planning to share with you our learning and progression as we explore United States geography with MIM (Man In the Map). We hope to share with you a video of us recognizing all of the States at the end of our unit with this awesome book.

The kids woke up this morning with the book, map, and a U.S. puzzle in their workbox.


First, we set out all of our materials and the kids hung the poster. The poster is thick and laminated and is going to last us a while. We got a puzzle of the United States this past Christmas from Aunt Snail and we thought it would be a great addition to our map and book.

State Match-Up Relay Race

We began with reading the first section of the book, and stopped with learning to recognize the Little Man in the Map (or MIM) states: Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Then, we played "match the puzzle piece to the map." We did this like a relay race. We laid out the five puzzle pieces and said, "On your mark, get set, go!" The Snails had to run to the map with the puzzle piece and match it up. They did this for about 15 minutes because it was so much fun.

Make Your Own State

Then, Big Snail said that he wanted to make his own puzzle and wanted to draw Minnesota.

Minnesota, Big Snail, age 4


Trace A State

Little Snail decided she wanted to trace a state. We are using file folders because we are out of tag board.

While the Snail's were tracing state puzzle pieces, I decided to make an extra set to play matching games and to use for future activities. We had fun matching "momma's states" to the puzzle states.


Get the book today in my store (click on the "Get Smart" owl, then click on the "Man in the Map" category) and learn with us! We will be doing a weekly post featuring this book and U.S. geography activities for little kids. If your homeschool is on vacation, you *HAVE* to add this to your list for next year! I PROMISE you will love it!

We will be learning the States in chunks, sections, or regions. The Snails will move to the next region when they have a true understanding of the 5 States that make up MIM. There is no telling how quickly this will happen, so if you get the book and follow along, please keep in mind that we learn at a Snail's pace. :o)

I would like to add that The Little Man in the Map is a story book. It is not a program and the ideas that we are using with this book do not come with the book.




Check out this cute video about the book: