Walking and Talking Geography

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The article Walking and Talking Geography by Fertig and Silverman (2007, pg. 15-18) talks about how students that are in 1st-3rd are more developmentally ready to view maps like the one above but with a small-world approach to help students understand the geography that is closest to them.  The article also advises that when you teach students only what is close to them they might begin to believe that was is near is more important to them than what is far to them.  So this approach is ideal because it helps students understand the geography that is closest to them.  The article involved a story about Mr. Fertig who is known to grow prize-winning tomatoes but has an issue when his tomatoes have not grown.  The students are to help Mr. Fertig through the process of getting fertilizer, a screwdriver, amongst other things.  This approach helps the students not only solve problems but become familiar people, places, and environments.  I like this idea and I feel that it would be a great approach to implement in my classroom.