Assess your learners on the five themes of geography and the most important key terms and concepts from an introductory geography unit. Here you'll find an assessment with 15 fill-in-the-blank and 14 multiple-choice questions, sections...

Your young geographers will combine what they have learned about the five themes of geography and their inner creativity to design a physical map for an imaginary nation.

Here is a simple assignment that will introduce your young geographers to location, one of the five themes of geography, through an activity in which they map the directions and lines of latitude/longitude of where they live. 

Give your learners a thorough overview of what they will learn when studying geography, from the five themes of geography (location, place, environment, movement, and regions) to the tools of a geographer and parts of a map.

Do your students have a connection to their natural environment? Create neighborhood maps together with your little learners. The lesson starts as the class talks about where they live and what their homes look like. They review their...

Introduce you map scale and ratios lesson with this informative video. A student demonstrates how to properly use a scale on a map, as well as read a topographic map. This is a fantastic video to show during your map unit!

Flat maps and globes are described in this short video. Students share the differences between the two using helpful props and demonstrations.

Learn about grids, latitude, longitude, titles, keys, scale, direction finder, and colors found on maps. This basic introduction to maps provides clear and simple definitions and examples that show the various parts of a map. While this...

While many of our learners aren't going to be out in the wilderness on their own, it is important for them to understand why we stress the importance of maps, compasses, and thinking skills. This short clip describes what is needed to...

Why are maps different colors? What do the colors mean? Well, that depends on the type of map you're looking at. Use this clip to show learners how colors are used on political, relief, regional, and population density maps. Multiple...

GPS has become a tool most people rely on to find locations, but how does it work? Two young travelers interview a NASA scientist to find out how GPS was developed, how it works, and what it can be used for. A good video for learners who...

How much do you learners know about the Bahai religion? If this is a topic of study in your class, they'll be able to use the provided map to show the diffusion, location, origin, and distribution of this not-so-well-known sect that...

Map test! Hand out this map of the East Coast of the United States and let learners mark each of the nine sites listed. They'll be making a map that shows the battle sites and areas involved in the War of 1812. Great as a test or as a...

Learners organize daily news with this journaling activity.

Young scholars explore how to draw a world map by hand and how to locate countries.

For this social studies worksheet, students examine a state map of Utah and answer 7 questions, using the map as a reference. The map includes freeways and bodies of water. There is no compass rose.

Here's an engaging, meaningful, and clever lesson on map skills for elementary schoolers. Pupils combine story writing with mapping skills to create an original piece of work. They utilize a worksheet embedded in the plan to guide them...

Investigate the agriculture in ancient Greece. Young historians will examine the environment of Greece and discover the agricultural crops of the area. Addtionally, they will "meet" a fictional character named Alex from that time period....

Students determine Earth's deepest trench, outline continents, major ocean mountains, and trenches on color-key map using Crayola Erasable Colored Pencils, identify oceans' geographic features, locate significant oceanic features around...

Teaching learners about latitude and longitude can get a little complicated. Present the concept by first representing it as a graph. Just like finding a location on a graph using the x and y-axis, learners will be able to locate items...

Learners investigate Lewis and Clark. For this Lewis and Clark lesson, students search the Internet for information about Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery. Learners use maps to understand the explorations and decide which...

Students examine the significance of map projections. They use Arc View GIS to compare/contrast the geographic coordinate system, identify the main properties of map projections, and produce a map.

Students play a board game where their tokens must move Columbus west. They choose cards which give commands to move in a coordinate direction. They practice moving west, north, east, south by playing the game.

The class receives background information on NATO, an atlas, and a blank world map. They color the original 1949 countries in red, the 1952 additions in green, and the 1990 additions in blue. This exercise would be a good starting point...