Find the direction, read the way!
A Social Studies learning game for primary school, Grade 3 to Grade 6
Map Reader is a direction-finding and map-reading game for grade 3 through grade 6. The child finds north from the sunrise, points out on the neighborhood map which side the bakery is from the school, and guides Niki step by step to the destination.
The Android app is on Cafe Bazaar and Myket, Iran's app stores. Anywhere else, play the online version in any browser.
Map Reader is part of the Nikipoo School app, alongside 85 other games. The game is in Persian.
Direction-finding is a skill the social studies textbook builds up slowly from grade 3, and many children get stuck on it. Map Reader starts from the child's own body: right hand toward the sunrise, so straight ahead is north. Next comes the neighborhood map; the child says which side the bakery is from the school and moves the token step by step to the destination with direction buttons. Later grades add the eight directions, map scale, continents, the equator, and latitude and longitude.
At this age, children grasp spatial concepts with their own body first, and only later on paper. The “right hand toward the sunrise” exercise turns directions from a few memorized words into a bodily experience that can also be tested in the schoolyard or the street.
Reading symbols and a map's legend means accepting that a small colored square is a real hospital. This “symbol-reading” ability is exactly what the child will later need for charts and tables. Scale, in grade 5, makes this bridge sturdier with numbers and kilometers.
In the “find your own way” levels, the child thinks before moving: which direction first, how many blocks, where to turn next. Any route that reaches the destination is accepted, so the child learns that several correct routes can exist for one goal, and the choice is theirs.
The token bumping into the map's edge isn't counted as a mistake at all, and going somewhere else just brings a message like “you were close!” This safe space lets a child worried about mixing up left and right try, see the result, and correct themselves.
A tip for parentsOn the way to school in the morning, ask the child which side the sun rose from and which direction the school is from home. On the weekend, draw a simple map of your street together and mark the bakery and the park with your own symbols.
Level titles are listed in the order the child plays them — from easy to hard, following the school textbook.
Grade 318 levels
Grade 421 levels
Grade 522 levels
Grade 622 levels
Daily 10: Society
Ten social studies questions every day
Time Train
Put events in order
Job Pairs
Pairs from life and society
Citizen Quiz
The little citizen's quiz
City & Village Basket
Sorting everyday life
Iran Explorer
Travel province by province!
Timeline
Which came first?
Our City
Get everyone the right kind of help!
Open Nikipoo School — Map Reader and 85 other games are waiting for you.
The Android app is on Cafe Bazaar and Myket, Iran's app stores. Anywhere else, play the online version in any browser.
Nikipoo School
