Make a unicorn story map with places that matter

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Your paper starting point

Blank fictional-place map and symbol key. All sheets have a matching A4 and Letter PDF. No account or email needed.

Blank fictional-place map and symbol key

A4 PDF ↓Letter PDF ↓SVG ↓

Worked map: the little bridge

A4 PDF ↓Letter PDF ↓SVG ↓

Print the matching paper size at 100%. Adults can adapt the activity and help with cutting. Use permissions.

A map of places, not a worksheet to fill with labels

Use the blank map for four things: a home, a friend or destination, an obstacle and a helpful place. Add a path between them and a key explaining your symbols. The point is to make the route readable and give the character a reason to use it.

Some story organizers arrange character, conflict and resolution into boxes rather than a geographic drawing. ReadWriteThink’s Story Map is an example of that different approach. Our worksheet is a fictional place map; the worked example then connects its locations to a simple narrative.

Put five marks on the page

1. A home: near one edge, draw a gate, cottage or clearing. This is where the character starts.
2. A destination: on another part of the sheet, draw where the character wants to end up. Decide what makes the journey worth taking.
3. A path: connect them with a dashed line that has room to bend.
4. An obstacle: put a stream, a missing sign or a closed gate along the route. It should create a specific problem rather than fill every blank space.
5. A helpful place: add somewhere the character can ask, learn or make a useful thing. Connect it to the route too.

Use invented locations. Do not ask a child to draw a real address, school or route from their home. A fictional garden gives everyone the same freedom to change the map.

Worked example: a bell and a broken bridge

The example sheet puts HOME at the left, FRIEND at the upper right and WORKSHOP below. A gray stream cuts across the main dashed path. The bridge is the obstacle: it needs a plank. The character wants to deliver a small bell to the friend.

A workable sequence is: leave home with the bell; find the broken bridge; follow the side path to the workshop; ask for help; return and repair the bridge together; deliver the bell. The workshop matters because it gives the character a next action. It is not just another building drawn to fill space.

Make a key you can actually use

Choose three marks that are visually different. For example, a dashed line means path, a gray band means stream and an arch means bridge. Put each mark in a key box and write or dictate its meaning. Then use those same marks consistently in the drawing.

Ask another person to point from home to destination using the key. If they cannot tell where a line goes, make the junction clearer. Add labels only where they help; a crowded page is harder to navigate than a simple one.

Three questions that turn the map into a story

• What does the character want at the destination?
• What stops the first route from working?
• What changes after they ask for help or try another idea?

Use the character maker to choose a fictional name and limitation, or use a flat puppet to act out the route. A character who cannot solve every problem alone makes the helpful place useful.

Try a second route

On the back, redraw the same home and destination but change one obstacle. Keep the goal. Notice whether the old solution still works. If you prefer a fixed-path puzzle with an answer, choose the garden maze instead; this map intentionally has no single correct layout.