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Geography Activities for Kids: Great Ideas for Hands-On Learning Fun

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During my first week as a student teacher, the teacher I was working with gave me the task of teaching geography during my semester-long placement with her. From there, I think I always had an interest in geography and finding fun geography activities for kids.

When I left my student teaching placement at the end of the semester, the teacher gave me a geography book with fun activities. In addition, one of my students gave me a globe to put in my classroom one day.

Now, I still have that book, and I still have that globe (though the globe is outdated) that I use in my classroom and now in my homeschool. It is still my goal today to find fun ways to teach geography to kids.

So, today I want to share with you some things I found over the years that you can use to make geography fun for your kiddos, whether in the classroom or in your home.

Table of Contents

Fun Geography Activities for Kids Using Books

Let’s start off with some fun books to work on geography with kids. There are quite a few options out there. You can find some that focus on landforms. Other books spend time working on mapping. While other books look at the whole country.

I have a list of books that work on different areas of geography depending on your goals or your kiddos’ interests.

Books for Working on Geography Skills

elementary geography activities for kids found in book

Janice VanCleave’s Geography for Every Kid– In this book, kids work on mapping skills, learning about latitude and longitude, landforms, and more through hands-on activities. It is perfect for elementary-aged kiddos.

The Geography Book: Activities for Exploring, Mapping, and Enjoying Your World by Caroline Arnold- Here is a book for ages 8-12 with hands-on learning activities. Kids do geography activities on maps, continents, landforms, weather, etc.

geography landforms book

Geography From A to Z: A Picture Glossary by Jack Knowlton– The book’s title explains it all. It is a picture book that shows kiddos what geographic landforms look like, not just tell them.

Do you want to help kids practice the landforms they learn?

Well, I have a fun Geography Landform Matching Game you might like. Be sure to check it out in my shop or click the image below.

geography game for kids

Kids practice 30 landforms by matching the landform with its definition. You decide how many they practice at one time. To help you out, an answer key is provided.

hands-on geography activities for young kids

Hands-On Geography: Reproducibles and Activities to Develop Early Geography Skills by Susan Buckley and Elspeth Leacock- This book is geared towards K-3 kids. It is great for kids that need to learn to basics of maps, climate, and geography of countries. It is a simple book worth checking out if you can find it in the library.

geography crafts for kids book

Geography Crafts for Kids: 50 Cool Projects and Activities for Exploring the World by Joe Rhatigan and Heather Smith- If you have crafty kids, they will love doing crafts to learn about the world. It is a great supplement and another way of studying world culture.

Horrible Geography by Anita Ganeri- Does the name sound familiar? Well, if you are familiar with Horrible History, that is why it sounds similar. In Horrible Geography, kids definitely learn geography in a fun way. They have a 10-book series that covers “Racing Rivers,” “Monster Lakes,” “Stormy Weather,” and more.

geography art activities

Geography Through Art: International Art Projects for Kids by Sharon Jeffus and Jamie Aramini- I personally own this book. I love including art in any subject. This book is a fun supplement to geography. As we study a continent, I look at the art projects for a country. For example, we are learning to draw a moose for our Canadian studies. The book is for 8–12-year-olds, but I am using it with my 14-year-old, which is fine for him.

Eat Your Way Around the World by Jamie Aramini- Who doesn’t like adding food to their school day?! Kids often enjoy cooking and then tasting their creations. So adding recipes from around the world for one of your geography activities with kids will surely be a hit.

If you want to try a fun subscription box where you travel the world through food, check out Little Passports Kitchen Adventure. I have a review that explains what the program is all about. Psst, it is a lot of fun!

A Trip Around the World by Leland Graham Ph.D., Traci Brandon M.Ed.- Here, kids study 12 countries worldwide. They get fun facts, basic information on the country, activities for each country, and additional resources. It is easy to use with K-5 graders.  

Fun geography activities for kids inside this book

The Everything Kids’ Geography Book by Jane P. Gardner and J. Elizabeth Mills- Kids explore the world through fun activities. This book teaches kids about mountains and terrain, rainforests, various landforms, and more. It makes learning about different countries so much fun.

The Geography Coloring Book by Wynn Kapit- If you have older kids, 9-17 years of age that like coloring, they may enjoy learning geographic features through coloring. The maps are highly detailed, so they may confuse younger kiddos. However, it is a great geography activity for middle and high school kids.

There are undoubtedly MANY other great books out there. I wanted to share a few to help you start pulling together some geography activities for your kids.

Fun Geography Activities for Kids- Games

Gameschooling is the best. If kids can learn with a game, you are set. Most kids will remember information better when it is added to play, and play is for ALL ages. What better geography activity for kiddos than games!

Continent Race

Family game night

If you want your kids to become familiar with where countries are in the world, then Continent Race is for you. We LOVE playing this game together. Plus, it is pretty cool that a kid created this game!

I was fortunate to receive a complimentary copy of the game to review when I was part of the Homeschool Review Crew. You can read more about this game in my review. Byron’s Games makes things educational but easy for the whole family (even different age levels) to play together.

Geography Trivia Challenge

Geography Trivia Challenge is a game put out by Mindware. We love their products because they do such an excellent job of creating educational materials for kids of all ages. This will be a hit if your kids 8+ like trivia games.

The World Geography Game

In this board game, families race around the world and learn about flags, capitols, landmarks, and more. The World Geography Game is recommended for ages 7+, making it a good family game and a fun geography activity for the kiddos.

Online Geography Games for Geography Fun

There is no denying that the internet has opened the world to us in many ways. One way is through online games. Online games make learning more accessible to kids. Plus, many kids love to use computers to learn.

I will share some sites with a good round-up of online geography games for kids.

At Childhood 101, you can find 9 Free Online Geography Games for Kids. You can find sites like Duckster, GeoNet, GeoGuesser, and more. Take a look. There are some fun and free ideas for all ages.

Education Possible has a list of Online Geography Games for Middle School. So, if you have older kiddos, be sure to check this list.

geography activities for learning fun

Final Thoughts

So, I didn’t get into a geography curriculum, like a full-on geography curriculum. But there certainly is plenty out there. I did include a few sprinkled throughout the post, like Let’s Go Geography and Little Passports.

However, I wanted this to be about fun geography activities for kids. Sometimes we don’t want a full curriculum. Sometimes we just want to have fun with a topic, so I included ideas for that purpose.

I hope you have found some ideas to have fun with geography. Then, you can show some of these ideas to your kiddos and let them pick what THEY want to do for a more interest-led approach.

However you use these ideas, I hope it sparks some fun and excitement in learning.

So go back through this list and find some fun geography activities for the kids to get started with!

Happy Homeschooling!

This Post Has One Comment

  1. Jennifer

    Great ideas! I have several of those books – I may be somewhat of a collector!

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