Old West Mat

The Old West Mat places Bee-Bot and Blue-Bot in a desert town from the Old West. Students can explore area and learn mapping skills along the way.

The Old West Mat brings together history, geography, and science, encouraging students to create stories. At the same time it teaches mapping skills with each feature in a square identifiable by its map coordinates. Students learn navigation in terms of directionality and relative and absolute locations.

Destinations, animals, and other items of interest are listed below with their coordinates:

Bison: A1 and B1
Compass Rose: E1
Mountain Goat: E1
Mesa: E1
Vulture: A2
Hand car: B2
Animal skull: B2, D3, and E5
River: C2, C2, C4, C5, and D5
Tepees: C2 and D2
Cactus: C3, D2, D3 and A3
Coyote: D2
Gold Mine: E2
Well: A3
Jail: B3
Bridge: C3 and D5
Armadillo: D3
Girl on horseback: E3
Bank: A4
General Store: B4
Corral: C4, D4, and E4
Horse: D4
Horse trainer: E4
Welcome sign: A5
Hotel: B5
Rattlesnake: E5

Lesson Ideas

Although these ideas refer to Bee-Bot, they can all be done with Blue-Bot as well.

Remind students to press X to erase the commands the previous student entered.

Before you start, you may find it handy to have your students help you create a card for each destination labeled with its name.

Lesson Idea 1: Explore the Buildings

Divide students into groups.
There are 5 named locations on the Old West Mat: Hotel, Bank, General Store, Jail, and Gold Mine.
Have a student randomly pick a location card.
That student navigates Bee-Bot from the Welcome Sign to the location on their card.
The next student sends Bee-Bot from that location to the one on their card.
Repeat so that all students have a turn going from one location to the next.

Lesson Idea 2: Explore the Animals

Divide students into groups.
There are 7 animals on the Old West Mat: Bison, Vulture, Coyote, Horse, Rattlesnake, Armadillo, and Mountain Goat. Can they find them all? They may wish to learn more about these animals.
Have a student randomly pick an animal card.
That student navigates Bee-Bot from the Welcome Sign to the animal on their card.
The next student sends Bee-Bot from that animal to the one on their card.
Repeat so that all students have a turn going from one animal to the next.

Lesson Idea 3: Using Coordinates

Create 25 cards, one for each of the coordinates on the mat: A1, A2, A3, A4, etc. through E5.
Show the students the coordinates on the map and how to identify the coordinates of an image.
Divide students into groups.
Have a student choose a coordinate card and give commands to Bee-Bot to travel to that square.
The next student sends Bee-Bot from that square to one with a different set of coordinates on the map.
Repeat so that all students have a turn going from one set of coordinates to another.

Lesson Idea 4: Using Directions

Create 20 cards with 5 of each labeled North, South, East, and West.
Divide students into groups.
Have a student choose a building or animal card.
Have them lay out a sequence of direction cards that they will use to send Bee-Bot to that location or animal. For example, to go from the Welcome Sign to the Jail, they would use East, North North. They can use the Compass Rose at the upper right as a reference.
The next student chooses a different destination and sends Bee-Bot to it using a sequence of direction words.
Repeat so that all students have a turn going from one location to another using direction words.

Lesson Idea 5: Using the Online Old West Mat

If students are using computers in your classroom, have them use the online Old West Mat in the Bee-Bot Emulator in a browser. They can explore the mat using these Lesson ideas.

Lesson Idea 6: Tell a Story

Create a story that your students can act out with their Bee-Bots. After they listen to the story, students take turns sending Bee-Bot to the places mentioned in the story in the correct order. They can use the cards they created in earlier lessons to keep track of their journey.

Here’s an example:
Maria and Carlos went to visit the Old West town.
First they stopped at the bank to get some money.
They stopped at the General Store to buy food, hats and other supplies.
Then they set off to visit the Tepee village and learn about the natives living there.
Next they went to watch how the cowboy trained the horse at the corral.
They finally went crossed the Bridge to get back to the Hotel to rest before the next day’s adventures.

Lesson Idea 7: Now It’s Your Turn

Encourage students to create and tell their own story using the Old West Mat. They can develop a plot that involves multiple locations. They can tell their story to the teacher (or write it down, if possible) and then record the list of commands used to implement it.

Mat Details

This mat is incorporated into Bee-Bot Lessons. These lessons give teachers lesson plans that are tied to national curriculum standards. They give students an opportunity to engage in 200 learning activities using the floor Bee-Bot or Blue-Bot or the same activities in the online emulator.

The mat is made of washable vinyl and measures approximately 30” by 30” (75 cm by 75 cm)

View the mat in Terrapin’s store.