Teaching essential map Skills to Elementary students

I love maps and I love teaching geography. I’m always amazed when I watch the National GeoBee, the knowledge those students have of the world is outstanding…. I’m over here like… The Himalayas are where?? So I try really hard to make geography fun for our kiddos so that they take an interest when they hear of places in lands far away. Teaching map skills are a regular part of our school day.

Today’s Skill Builder Worksheet Set is part of the 10 day Skill Builder Series. Check out Day 1 here and enjoy the rest of the fun with other great Homeschool Bloggers.

Why Teaching Map Skills are Important.

Teaching Map skills are just one way to teach important spatial reasoning skills to students. Spatial skills are what allow us to picture the locations of objects, their shapes, their relations to each other and the paths they take as they move. Living in the digital age, this skill is even more important.

Activities for Teaching Map Skills

Have your student map out their bedroom or their house.
Hide an object in your backyard and create a treasure map for your student to follow.
Use a map or a globe and practice using cardinal directions to determine the location of states or countries.
Read a storybook like Goldilocks and the Three Bears and have your student create a map of the the different locations in the story.
Purchase a map puzzle. Practice putting it together several times, when your student has learned the states or countries, pull out missing pieces and see if they can identify the missing location.
Read the newspaper or watch the world news. Have your student identify the location of the places mentioned on a map.
Map the sports teams. Choose a sports league and grab a blank map. Place a star on the states that call those teams home.
Collect maps from your state, amusement parks, city, zoo and any other map available. Using those maps teach directions, the map key, and grid work.