Geography Wizardry for Kids

Social Studies Review, Fall 2001 by Rocca, Al

This exciting resource published by Barron's contains over 150 interactive projects, games, maps, crafts and experiments for teacher's to use in their social studies curriculum. The focus in this book is to get students involved in making maps, lots of maps, in addition to reading maps and learning about them. The authors begin by setting out 12 ideas to learn to love geography.

* Encourage hand-on experience with geography

* Save old maps and buy new maps

* Start a year-long mapmaking venture with children.

* Plan quality time to help children with projects, mapmaking, hiking and exploring the world.

* Keep track of directions-and of latitudes and longitudes

* Keep materials for spur-of-the-moment art, craft and recipe projects

* Start a collection with and for your children

* Talk to your children about your own dealings and travels around the world

* If you use the Internet with children, you can help them keep up with the world's news

* Encourage students to keep a personal travel diary and observation journal

* Don't be reluctant to expose children to difficult concepts

* Dream with geography

Looking at this list, I can remember the fun and interest I had as a student when I collected old National Geographic maps. From here, I collected road maps, and this helped peak my interest in geography. It is only natural to wonder about all of the places listed on maps, and you wish you could visit each place. A great place to start a class map collection is to visit garage sales or start a school collection contest. Most travel insurance companies and travel agencies will give you free maps. The new road maps put out by many of the insurance groups are highly accurate and can be used to teach a variety of map skills. Ask travel agents to save their outdated tour package brochures-many times you can get multiple copies of the same brochure.

The authors start out with interactive tasks like "Make Your Own Passport," "Design Your own Stamp," and "Explore the World Layer by Layer." In the latter exercise, students use a printed paper map of their choice, tracing paper, marker pens and clear plastic sheets to create maps that show change over time. For example, you can have students start with an outline map, as the base map, of an area they are studying in social studies. Then, working in groups, each team could do an overlay map showing political, physical or social characteristics. Each activity give a detail, yet easy to follow, set of steps to complete. The teacher could photocopy these directions, for grades five and up. For younger grades, teachers can quickly rewrite the steps and simplify the directions.

Some of the activities are absolutely interesting and historically accurate. For instance, one activity has students making an explorer's map-reading tool, a navigational divider, to measure distances on a map. The very next exercise, has students designing and constructing an explorer's antique map. The next challenging assignment is entitled, "Prove the World is not Flat." All three of these would serve as excellent experiences for 5th grade students studying the explorers.

For 6th and 7th grade teachers working on China and the Silk Road, you can have students play the "Silk Road Game." This fun board game will teach students about the geography diversity stretching the thousands of miles along this well-traveled route. Students can make their own travel cards that help or hinder the "trader" along the route. Another mapmaking exercise has students making their own pirate map, complete with a grid system and colorful island terrain.

A few of the ideas presented are original and fun to consider. Take for example, the exercise "Play PingPong on the International Date Line." Here students use a map and some math skills to figure out how what date it is as the ping-pong ball returns to "Fred." The problem continues as students need to factor in ping-pong game played at 11:59 on the International Date Line.

Teachers can take their students outside and use the products of several activities to learn directions, and to appreciate hiking. The class learns how to plan a hike, make a bearing board, make a hiking map, and design a buried treasure map. One very practical exercise, especially good for younger students, is "Ask for Directions and Get Unlost." Here students in pairs describe the steps to get from one known location to another. The locations can be homes, parks, movie theaters, etc. All groups can try to role play giving directions to someone who does not know the area. You can challenge students to give simple, clear directions. To follow up, students can then draw a class map listing all of the important landmarks.

This book represents one of the best single sources for mapmaking activities. Whether you want to draw a 50-foot playground map or construct 3-D terrain maps, it's all in this well put together volume. Most of the required materials for building the wide variety of maps are typical office or household materials that teachers can easily acquire. A bonus glossary, in the back of the book, is accurate and extensive. The plastic ring spine works great for photocopying pages that need to go to students. This is one book you will want to use over and over again.