How to Teach Geography to Children

Fun Tucson map

Having a kid learn the names of nearby streets might be difficult enough, never mind trying to teach them neighboring countries. Rather than introduce a technical and yawn-filled lesson, you can teach geography to children in a fun and memorable way. A few simple tips and tricks will have kids remembering street names, neighboring countries and places found around the world.

Things You'll Need

• Maps
• Quizzes

Instructions

1. Use colorful visuals. Any geography lesson, for kids and adults alike, needs to come with a map. Don’t just tack up those drab maps of the world where everything is a mundane brown. Fashion your own colors on top of it, making Poland and enticing green, France a neon pink and the United States polka dot. Draw little pictures of things you find in each locale, such as rattlesnakes in Tucson.

2. Make it fun. In addition to amusing maps, make the memorization of countries and their locations equally as enticing. Rather than explain how Italy is this degree latitude and that degree latitude, tell the kids that Italy is the country that looks like a boot. Michigan is the state that looks like a hand. Africa is a sideways horse head. Come up with others with help from the class.

3. Make it relevant. Here’s where you throw in bits of history, ethnicity and travels. Ask kids how many states or countries they’ve been to and to point them out on the map. Tell them pizza came from China, and have them find China on the map. Hook up the geography with things that mean something to them so they remember it better, or at all.

4. Repeat as necessary (and it will be necessary). Spend time every day reviewing what was learned the day before. Spend time each week doing the same for the previous week’s lesson.

5. Quiz often. Pop quizzes will ensure kids are learning along the way. Hand out blank maps and ask them to fill in 5 to 15 countries. You can also turn quizzes into a game like Jeopardy, using trivia questions about certain locales. Give extra credit for pointing those locales out on a map.

Tips & Warnings

• Incorporating holidays into the lessons will also help. Come Christmas, every kid should be able to point out the North Pole. The 4th of July gets a crash course on England.

• Other fun geography activities include having a snack or show-and-tell day where kids are assigned to bring in different snacks or items relevant to various countries.