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Understanding how things look when we look straight down from above.
Imagine you have wings and could fly high into the clouds! If you looked down at your house right now, would it look the same as it does when you are standing at the front door?
A bird's eye view is a special way of looking at things from straight above. Imagine you are a bird looking down at the ground. When you are standing on the sidewalk, you see the front of a car. But from the sky, the car looks like a simple rectangle! This view is very important because it is how we make maps. Maps show us where things are by looking down at them, just like a bird does. Everything looks flat, like a sticker on a piece of paper.
Quick Check
If you are looking at something from a bird's eye view, where are you standing?
Answer
You are looking straight down from high above.
When we look at things from above, they turn into simple shapes. A tall water bottle might look like a small circle from the top. A square tissue box looks like a simple square. Even a giant tree might look like a big, fluffy green circle! By looking for these shapes, we can draw a picture of a whole room on just sheet of paper. This is the first step to becoming a map maker.
Let's look at a coffee mug in two ways: 1. From the side: You see the tall body and the handle on the side. 2. From the bird's eye view: You see large circle (the rim) and smaller circle inside it (the bottom). The handle looks like a little bump on the side!
Quick Check
If you look at a basketball from straight above, what shape would you see?
Answer
A circle.
Now that you know how birds see, you can make a map of your desk! To do this, you don't draw the legs of the desk or the sides of your books. You only draw the shapes you see when you look straight down at the top. Your desk is usually big rectangle. Your paper is a smaller rectangle inside it. Your pencil might just look like thin line or a tiny circle if it is standing up!
Follow these steps to draw a desk map: 1. Draw large rectangle for the desk top. 2. Draw medium rectangle in the middle for your workbook. 3. Draw small circle in the corner for your glue stick. 4. Draw thin rectangle for your ruler.
Imagine mapping the whole playground: 1. The sandbox becomes large square. 2. The slide becomes long, skinny rectangle. 3. The round merry-go-round becomes big circle. 4. The path becomes curvy line connecting them all!
What does a 'bird's eye view' look like?
If you look at a square box from the top, what shape do you see?
Maps are usually drawn using a bird's eye view.
Review Tomorrow
Tomorrow, look at your dinner plate and glass. Can you name the shapes they make from a bird's eye view?
Practice Activity
Try this: Put a toy on the floor and look straight down at it. Try to draw just the shapes you see on a piece of paper!