Teaching Kids Geography: Puzzles, Books, and Activities

Last week we talked about making a magnetic puzzle map of the United States. Here are some other geography activities our family enjoys that you may want to try at home.

We collect map puzzles (many of which we scored at the thrift store) such as this floor puzzle of the United States:

We love Puzzleballs of the globe, continents, and world map. With them you can have both a geography and math lesson if you put the pieces together in numerical order which are on the flip side of the map picture:

We pour over atlases such as the National Geographic World Atlas for Young Explorers, which we took out of the library, answering questions such as “which country on this map grows bananas?” or “where does our friend Natalia live in New Zealand?” Our five year old soaks it up!

We also collect local maps of the area and practice driving with our finger from one destination to another, marking out how Daddy drives to work or where our favorite playground is located in relation to our house.

Music is a fantastic teaching tool too. We love to belt out the “Continents Song” that I learned when I was a little girl. Other songs such as “Mississippi Cats” and “Bells of Westminster” (from our Music Together classes) can be jumping off points for discussing a particular state or place. Sing the song, then go find that spot on a map!