¹     An atlas is a book of maps. Atlases are filled with maps of states and countries. People study maps in the atlas. They might even mark on the maps. Any map on paper can have trails and cities marked for travel. However, not all maps are drawn on paper. What do you call a map that is formed like a ball? It's called a globe!
 
²     Most classrooms have a globe. A globe is a map of the Earth in the shape of the Earth! Can you find your home country on the globe? If you take a closer look at the globe, you will see lots of lines. If you were to fly around the world in a plane, when you looked down you would not see those lines. So why are those lines on the globe? They tell us things about the world.
 
³     Earth has a North Pole and a South Pole. As your globe spins on its axis, you see the top of the axis in the middle of the North Pole, and the bottom of the axis in the middle of the South Pole. Halfway between the North Pole and the South Pole is an imaginary line we call the equator [ee-KWAY-ter]. The equator goes around the middle of Earth like a belt. It divides the Earth into two parts. We call the upper half the Northern Hemisphere [HIM-ih-sfear] and the lower half is called the Southern Hemisphere.

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