Geography: Map Making Fun!

I love to make learning come alive and change up the ordinary to make it a wonderful learning experience.  It is fun to watch my children learn and grow through the act of play.

One of my children’s favorite subjects is geography.  I am teaching my kids the basics of geography: directional signs, what maps are, compasses, and also the key terms.  In one lesson my children were shown six different locations from the library to the police station.  Each street was listed and I explained the worksheet to them.  They were able to answer correctly, but I could tell they did not totally grasp what the assignment was really teaching them.

My children are hands on learners and because of this I pulled out my painter’s tape and made a map grid like the one on the worksheet.  I even visually pulled out play food for the market, and buildings from their wooden train set to be the library and the hospital.  I then used black sharpie marker and wrote down the street names.

My kid’s eyes lit up when they saw the map on the floor of their bedroom.  I let them choose a car from their toys and we redid the worksheet.  It was neat to watch my kids physically do their work and then the light bulb came on and they totally got it.   They understood that to get to the hospital you had to use brown street and they physically drove their cars from place to place.  I left the taped map on the floor for over a month vacuuming right over it.  My children played with it and mimicked what they had learned in their geography lesson.  I also incorporated this fun map on the floor to work with directional terms and signs as well.

There are many ways you can make learning a fun experience with your children.  All you need is a little creativity and some painter’s tape. Geography: map making fun!

How do you make learning fun in your home?  Comment below!

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