Geography: Map Skills

In the summer of 2012, while planning our upcoming school year, I decided it was time to change the direction of our geography studies and switch gears! Over the years, we've completed some fantastic geography unit studies as well as studied various places based on our history studies, but we had never focused solely on basic map skills. While at The School Box store, I found a book titled Daily Geography Practice and decided to give it a try. I'm so glad I did, because we are learning more geography than ever and having a terrific time doing it!

Even though this is a workbook, it's a hands-on approach to learning! The way the book is laid out, the teacher teaches the lesson on Monday with the lesson book in hand and usually a globe and/or a map, and the children answer 2 questions every day of the week for a total of 10 answered questions. Every Friday there is a "Challenge." All of the questions and challenges require the children to refer back to the map. At the end of each week, the children have learned A LOT about the particular mapping skill, learned several new vocabulary words, answered two pages of questions, completed a challenge and produced a colorful map in the process. Here are a few samples of our work:

This has been a favorite for all of us this homeschool year! We are always eager to do Geography!

The contents for the Grade 5 book include:

Week 1 Parts of a Map

Week 2 Globe Lines

Week 3 The Four Hemishpheres

Week 4 A Map Grid

Week 5 Lines of Latitude and Longitude

Week 6 Map Coordinates

Week 7 A Robinson Projection Map

Week 8 A Mercator Projection Map

Week 9 Picturing North America

Week 10 Picturing the World

Week 11 A Road Map: Montana

Week 12 The Saint lawrence Seaway

Week 13 A Physical Map: Washington

Week 14 Mountains and Desserts of the United States

Week 15 Waterways of the United States

Week 16 A Physical Map: Canada

Week 17 A Physical Map: Mexico

Week 18 A Physical Map: South America

Week 19 Regions of the United States

Week 20 Regions of Canada

Week 21 The Region of Central America

Week 22 Regions of the United Kingdom

Week 23 A National Symbol: Washington, D.C.

Week 24 A Cultural Landmark: Yellowstone National Park

Week 25 Climate Zones of the United States

Week 26 The Arctic Tundra

Week 27 Twenty Largest Cities in the United States

Weel 28 A Cultural  Map: National Football League

Week 29 A Product Map: Nebraska

Week 30 Boroughs of New York City

Week 31 Time Zones of the United States

Week 32 Sharing the Colorado River

Week 33 A Tourist Map: Florida

Week 34 The Top Oil-Producing States

Week 35 A History ap: The United States in 1861

Week 36 A City Plan

The standard book is $29.99. Evan-Moor has several options (EBooks, Student Editions for $7.99, etc.) on their website, so you can figure out what works best for you. 

Here is a link to get you started:

Daily Geography Practice, Grade 5