Eastside, the old elementary did this after I was out of school. You could see the colorful map from the road and it looked really nice! I would see teachers out there with kids. I don't know what games they played but older kids (3rd grade+) could do a little race with it. For example the teacher could have two kids ready and ask them to find a state. The first one wins. I am sure they could think of many things to do with it. Anyhow I give the map two thumbs up for anyone that has the room to do it. It is faded now. The elementary has moved to bigger and better spaces but since it is in the middle of town and is used by the pre-k and the community I wished they could refresh it.
Does your gym teacher have a game that is played with a US map? We will be painting 4 square and hop scotch on the pavement this spring - maybe we should consider a US map. . . Is this popular with the kids?
What other games do you have painted on the playground and how are the games played?
We ordered the stencil from www.peacefulplaygrounds. We haven't painted it yet, but it looks very cool. Our PTO purchased it at the gym teacher's request using excess money from last year. We also ordered the world map. At this point, we have to wait until the snow melts to paint it!
A former student painted our map as an EAgle Scout project. So he had to find all of the donations etc. to fund the project. Our PTO did give him a small donation towards the project.