Geography for Kids

Bring It to Life

When teaching your kids or students geography, the most important thing to do is bring it to life. Take the lessons out of the textbooks and give them real meaning. Geography is about more than just lines on a map; it's also about the people and cultures of the place. Put a human face on your geography, and your kids will be much more likely to remember the states, countries, and continents.

What Is Geography

To paraphrase Dictionary.com, geography is the study of the earth's surface, its features, and the distribution of life. This may include:

• Population
• Climate
• Elevation
• Soil
• Vegetation
• Land use
• Industry

To bring these things beyond basic facts and give them depth and meaning, it's a good idea to combine social studies and geography. While you're teaching your kids about a particular place, include information about the people and how they live. Some things to discuss include:

• Foods of the region
• Religion
• Clothing and styles
• Information about the kids of the area

Beginning Geography for Kids: Map Skills

When your kids are just beginning to learn about geography, you’ll want to introduce them to maps, atlases, and globes. At first, these will have little meaning and will seem like colorful drawings. In time and with practice, they will come to realize there are connections between the drawings and actual places. To help the process along, have your children:

• Draw a map of their bedroom
• Make a map of the entire house
• Make a map of the street
• Make a map of the neighborhood
• Give someone directions from your house to the neighborhood park
• Create a map of a make-believe country

Geography Pen Pals

One excellent way for kids to learn about other parts of the world is to get to know people who are there. By exchanging postcards or letters with a child in another country, kids get a real-life picture of how people actually live. Contact a school in the location of your choice and set up a pen pal system.

Postcards from a World Traveler

If you can arrange it, some professionals are also in unique positions to see the world and could offer valuable insight into geography. Ideas include:

• Pilots
• Military men and women
• Truck drivers
• Flight attendants
• Archaeologists
• Geophysicists
• Scientists

If you know anyone in these fields, ask him to send your kids postcards from various parts of the country or world. Plot the postcards on a map and discuss them in context.

Bring Geography into the Kitchen

Many kids enjoy cooking. Take advantage of this natural love and incorporate cooking into your geography lessons. You can make cookies or cakes in the shape of the state, country, or continent you're studying, and use food coloring to label important landmarks, such as:

• Rivers
• Lakes
• Oceans
• Capitals
• Other significant cities

Another fun way to incorporate cooking in your geography lessons is to have the kids cook foods native to the land you’re studying. As you cook, discuss the way in which the product is grown and harvested. Compare the food to the foods native to your home state: would the food grow where you live? What climate and soil does it need to thrive? Perhaps you could even try to recreate the conditions and grow it yourself.

Bringing the Flags to Life

Studying the flag of the states and countries is another fun part of learning about the world. Do some research to discover the meaning behind the colors, design, shape, and patterns of the flag: is there religious or historical meaning attached?

Now that you’ve dissected the flags and understand their regional significance, let your students recreate the flag with paint, watercolors, foam, markers, or crayons.

Geography Games for Kids

All kids love games, and games are a vital way to make the facts stick. When kids put facts in context, involving their hands, minds, and bodies, they're also committing the facts to memory. These geography games and toys will help:

• LeapFrog Explorer Smart Globe
• University Games Brain Quest Around the World Game
• Out of the Box Ten Days in Europe Game
• Where in the World