Christmas Storywalk

Mini-mappers: How a StoryWalk® Builds Children’s Spatial Counting candy canes.pngSkills

Penny Beeston, Libby Hillman & Marg Bourke, Geography Victoria

 

On a sunny Sunday a couple of weeks before Christmas, hundreds of children - “mini-mappers” - headed to the Carlton Gardens to take part in Geography Victoria’s Christmas StoryWalk®*.

Their mission: to navigate the park and read a story – by finding a sequence of storyboards, each of which revealed a page from the newly released children’s picture book The Christmas Tree Catastrophe by local author Emma Bowd and illustrator Matt Shanks.

StoryWalks® are gaining popularity worldwide as a fun way to promote early literacy, outdoor play, physical activity, and family engagement. They also function as powerful, informal, learning environments, where children learn through exploration and interaction in the real-world. These outcomes align with the City of Melbourne’s vision for a walkable city and active communities, as well as with its public library goals of fostering literacy and connecting families using books. 

With funding support from the City of Melbourne Libraries, Geography Victoria was able to offer this event free of charge, ensuring it was accessible to all. As geographers, we also saw this as a perfect opportunity to promote an often-overlooked scientific skill: the ability to read and interpret maps.

Melbourne is fortunate to have so many beautiful open spaces, and the grand Victorian-era landscape design of the Carlton Gardens provided an ideal setting for mini-mappers to develop their spatial thinking. Its intersecting paths, open lawns, and mature trees challenged children to interpret their environment actively.

Each child received a colourful, engaging paper map with which to navigate the park. After a brief introduction to basic map symbols, orientation and landmarks, the mini-mappers set off in family groups to locate the first storyboard. 

Importantly, there were no digital prompts, arrows, or turn-by-turn instructions. The children had to interpret the symbols, orient the map to their surroundings, identify landmarks such as paths, playgrounds, and toilet blocks, and choose routes accordingly. If they went off course, there was no automatic recalculation - just observation, discussion, and reorientation using visible features of the landscape. 

Adults acted as facilitators rather than directors, supporting children as they made decisions, but allowing them to lead. The storyboards included discussion points, activities, and questions, along with the story. Families often clustered together to discuss a question or observation and then debate a route choice, demonstrating collaborative problem-solving. The result was a powerful example of place-based geographic learning in action.

 

Two scooters reading the story.png

In an era of automated navigation, experiences like the StoryWalk® demonstrate the ongoing value of teaching children to read paper maps. By following their map to follow the story, children develop spatial awareness, problem-solving skills, collaboration and confidence in navigating the world around them. These are all foundational skills that underpin later learning in STEM subjects, including geography.
And based on the feedback, both children and grown-ups had a wonderful time. Although the story was pitched at 2–8-year-olds, many older children participated enthusiastically alongside their younger siblings, drawn by the novelty of navigating with a paper map and the satisfaction of independently working their way around the course.  

The success of this free event highlights the potential for creative, low-tech approaches to science and geography education. Geography Victoria hopes the Christmas StoryWalk® will become a regular feature of Melbourne’s Christmas calendar, inspiring future generations of confident and curious mini-mappers. 


Geography Victoria extends special thanks to:

  • The City of Melbourne Libraries team for their great support, funding the event and promoting it to all their library members;
  • Emma Bowd, author of The Christmas Tree Catastrophe, who spent the whole day engaging with the hundreds of participants who were thrilled to meet her;
  • Matt Shanks, illustrator of The Christmas Tree Catastrophe, who dropped by and completed the walk with his family.
  • Readings Kids, Carlton for offering discounts to our enthusiastic map readers;
  • The Children’s Book Council of Australia, Victoria Branch for promotional support and volunteers who assisted on the day; and,
  • The 20 dedicated Geography Victoria volunteers who did such a fabulous job of registering participants and leading hands-on activities at the storyboard stations, from dress-ups to hoop jumping to creating glorious gingerbread men and decorating Christmas trees. 

 

* The StoryWalk® Project was created by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, Vermont, USA, and developed in collaboration with the Kellogg-Hubbard Library.