While many schools introduce basic Geography skills and knowledge through year long courses, others only call for the integration of Geography into other Social Studies courses. This often leaves students with gaps in their learning, where basic map or cultural knowledge would come in handy. To remedy that, start off the school year with a quick refresher on the basic
Geography Skills and Knowledge needed to support learning with all the rest.
And to teach the skills or review the content,
use games to make it fun and memorable!
- Use inflatable globes for tossing games to review continents, countries, capitals, or other content needed for an upcoming lesson.
- Pass the globe from student to student. Where the thumb lands is the topic of discussion.
- Toss the globe in the air. Ask a review question. Students retrieve the globe and answer the question with the location identified.
- Cover the names of pertinent locations for review. Have students pass the globe, name one of the locations, remove the cover, and pass to the next student for the next location revealing.
- Paint a wall map or invest in a Dry-Erase Wall Map for daily use with bellringers, quick quizzes, or other skills practice.
Available on Amazon or at the retailer here… http://www.houzz.com/photos/4627063/Kids-Dry-Erase-World-Map-Wall-Decal-contemporary-kids-wall-decor - Play relay games to identify locations, perform skills, or detail facts with dry erase markers assigned in varying colors to identify teams and create competition.
- Have a quiz bowl with 2 students at a time poised to find and label a country for quick location reviews. As students become more knowledgeable about locations, use culture clues rather than country names to make the game more of a challenge.
- Use the wall map as an entrance ticket or exit ticket each day. As students enter the classroom, they can identify locations tied to the day’s lesson, or may be required to share a fact about the location gathered in the day’s lesson on the way out of class.
- Play Matching Games to help students review key vocabulary, to match locations to facts or features, or to cluster information about a culture or location for further study.
- Set up teams for class competitions to complete world or us puzzles (available at Dollar Tree), to identify longitude or latitude for assigned locations, or to create maps that detail the locations learned about in historic lessons.
And there are so many other options for making Geography learning fun. The big thing is to make Geographic learning and review a regular event in your Social Studies classroom. While some skills learned in school may pass to the wayside after graduation, Geography skills will be used for a lifetime.
If you need lessons to review or teach Geography in your classroom, please take a look through my TpT Store for many options from Games to Scavenger Hunts to Task Cards, Centers, and more!
Happy Teaching!