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Grade 3 Social Studies · World 1: Globe Trekkers · Level 7
Latitude and Longitude
Tell lines of latitude from lines of longitude, and find a place where two lines cross.
Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.
What children learn in Level 7
- Mapmakers draw more imaginary lines. Lines of latitude run east and west, like the rungs of a ladder. They tell how far north or south of the equator a place is.
- Lines of longitude, also called meridians, run from the North Pole to the South Pole. They tell how far east or west of the prime meridian a place is.
- Latitude lines never meet. Longitude lines all meet at the poles. The equator is 0° latitude, and the prime meridian is 0° longitude.
- Where two lines cross, you can name a place exactly. This dot is at 30° north, 120° east, near Shanghai, China, on the coast of Asia.
- Try it with a grown-up: find the equator and the prime meridian on a globe, then find Georgia. Is it north or south, east or west?
Georgia Standards of Excellence in Social Studies:
- SS3G2 — Locate and describe the equator, prime meridian, and lines of latitude and longitude on a globe.
- MGS.9 — Map and Globe Skill 9: use latitude and longitude to determine location (introduced in Grade 3)