Map Scale Worksheets

About this resource

Teaching map scale and need pages students can actually work on? This is a complete set for grades 6-8: four short readings (what a scale tells you, measuring with a ruler, changing map distance to real distance, and large-scale and small-scale maps), each beside a drawn figure, each with a main idea box, a fact box and two checks to answer with a letter. Then students read scale bars, read inch and centimeter rulers, measure two drawn maps with a real ruler and use the scale, convert in both directions, find a scale from two distances, solve word problems, compare two maps of one town, pick the larger-scale map, choose a map for a job with claim, evidence and reasoning, take a two-part quiz and do two cut-and-paste mats. Answer keys give every number.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (40 pages)

• 22 student pages in fourteen kinds of page, each with a name line and one short instruction
• 128 scored items spread over twenty pages, every answer computed from the same numbers that draw the page
• 4 readings of 120 to 129 words, one per idea, each beside a drawn figure, with a main idea box, a fact box and 2 checks (8 checks in all)
• 1 Before You Read page with 4 true-or-false items; 1 Words to Know page: match 8 words (map scale, scale bar, map distance, real distance, ratio scale, large-scale map, small-scale map, segment) to their meanings
• 2 scale bar pages: read what one segment and the whole bar stand for on 6 bars (12 answers), then use one bar to find the length of 6 roads
• 1 ruler page: read 6 lines on inch and centimeter rulers, some starting away from zero
• 2 measuring pages: a drawn map in inches (1 in = 20 mi) and a drawn map in centimeters (1 cm = 25 km), 6 trips each, a map distance and a real distance for every trip (24 answers); print at 100 percent and use a real ruler
• 2 conversion pages: 8 map-to-real items; 4 real-to-map items and 4 find-the-scale items
• 1 word problem page with 6 problems, a work box and an answer box for each
• 3 compare pages: two drawn maps of one invented town (6 questions), 8 pairs of scales to sort by larger scale, and a claim-evidence-reasoning page
• 12-item quiz across two pages (the second part uses a road diagram); 1 self check (8 statements)
• 12 cut-and-paste pieces on 2 mats (match 6 map distances to real distances, match 6 meanings to words), 6 pieces each in a 3 by 2 grid
• 5 answer keys; 1 tracker, 1 class grid, 1 team note, 1 family page
• 1 filled example (an invented student), 1 phrase bank (17 starters in 6 groups)
• A binder cover with type-in teacher and class fields, and a page of divider tabs (5 tabs) with a spine label to cut out
• Start Here and a how-to-read-a-page page

Built For The Student Holding The Page

A "My name" line, one short instruction with a small picture cue, a plain scalloped border and big ruled boxes. Nothing on a student page is written for an adult: the keys and records are on separate teacher pages. The cut pages have six pieces in a strip-and-grid layout, edge to edge, so there are only a few straight cuts. Clip art is kept to a ruler, a map, a globe and a pencil; the maps, scale bars and rulers are drawn for this file. The file prints clean in black and white.

A Short Account, Not A Full Textbook

Each reading is a plain-words summary written for this file: a map scale tells how a map distance matches a real distance, a scale bar is split into equal segments, real distance is map distance times what one unit stands for, a ratio scale such as 1:100,000 means 1 unit on the map is 100,000 of the same unit on the ground, and a large-scale map shows a small area in more detail. It does not quote any source and it is not tied to a particular standard. The towns, rivers and lakes are invented, and so is the only student in the file; it says so.

Type In, Or Print

The name line, every answer box, every check box and every ruled work box are type-in fields in any PDF reader: click one, type, then save. The ruler and measuring pages are for a real ruler on a printed page at 100 percent; each map also carries a scale bar, which stays true if a copy is shrunk. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a Google Slides or PowerPoint file.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

A set of map scale readings and practice pages with the record-keeping around it. It is not a timed test, a screener, a clinical tool, or a claim about any student's age or rate of progress. There is no IEP goal language or eligibility wording anywhere in the file, and no claim of alignment to any standard.

If You Want More

Climate Zones Worksheets | Map, Sort, Compare, Write 6th-8th Grade; Forms of Energy Worksheets | Sort, Match, Energy Chains, Write 6th-8th Grade; Gravity Worksheets | Mass vs Weight, Reading, Practice, Keys Grades 6-8.