Geography

Attention all geography buffs! The GeoSpy Agency needs you! Help them identify continents, countries, states and provinces to earn full GeoSpy status. For your first assignment, visit: missmaggie.org. Good luck!

To celebrate Earth Day (which is right around the corner), make these fun little paper mache globes.

You'll need a small round balloon, paper mache paste (1 part flour and 2 parts water), a whisk, 1" newspaper strips, 1" tissue paper strips, a bucket of paste, a disposable cup and plate, skewer, battery operated tea light, and a bucket of water and paper towels for clean up.

For complete instructions ,visit: housingaforest.com.

Music is a fantastic learning tool, especially for the memorization of tricky things. Check out this fun YouTube video about the 50 states and their capitals.

WAKKO'S AMERICA (Episode 21 of Animaniacs)
Music traditional (Turkey in the Straw). Lyrics by Randy Rogel. 

Wakko:
Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Indianapolis, Indiana
And Columbus is the capital of Ohio
There's Montgomery, Alabama, south of Helena, Montana
Then there's Denver, Colorado, under Boise, Idaho.

Texas has Austin, then we go north
To Massachusetts' Boston, and Albany, New York
Tallahassee, Florida, and Washington, D.C.
Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Nashville, Tennessee.

Elvis used to hang out there a lot, ya know.

Trenton's in New Jersey, north of Jefferson, Missouri
You've got Richmond in Virginia; South Dakota has Pierre
Harrisburg's in Pennsylvania and Augusta's up in Maine
And here is Providence, Rhode Island, next to Dover, Delaware.

Concord, New Hampshire, just a quick jaunt
To Montpelier, which is up in Vermont
Hartford's in Connecticut, so pretty in the fall
And Kansas has Topeka; Minnesota has St Paul.

Juneau's in Alaska and there's Lincoln in Nebraska
And it's Raleigh out in North Carolina and then
There's Madison, Wisconsin, and Olympia in Washington
Phoenix, Arizona, and Lansing, Michigan.

Here's Honolulu; Hawaii's a joy
Jackson, Mississippi, and Springfield, Illinois
South Carolina with Columbia down the way
And Annapolis in Maryland on Chesapeake Bay.

They have wonderful clam chowder.

Cheyenne is in Wyomin' and perhaps you make your home in
Salt Lake City out in Utah, where the Buffalo roam
Atlanta's down in Georgia, and there's Bismarck, North Dakota
And you can live in Frankfort in your old Kentucky home.

Salem in Oregon; from there we join
Little Rock in Arkansas; Iowa's got Des Moines
Sacramento, California; Oklahoma and its city
Charleston, West Virginia, and Nevada, Carson City.

That's all the capitals there are! 

Here's a way to make geography fun from: graspingforobjectivity.com

Have your child trace a map of the United States and then interview friends and family to see which states they've been to. Have them make a legend for which colors represent which people. You'll have a colorful representation of your interview!

Gear up for Christmas Eve! Here's a fun way to learn about Geography while tracking Santa as he works his way across the globe. Just visit noradsanta.org  on Christmas Eve to see Santa work his magic worldwide.

(Taken from: www.cooperativelearning365.com)

Here's a fun visual idea that focuses on the world we live in. Cut five envelope fold foldables that will nestle inside of each other at the following dimensions:

Earth: 8-1/2" square

Continent:  7" square

Country:  5.5" square

State:  4" square

City: 2.5" square

After you make the foldables and glue them inside each other, illustrate them to match what each foldable represents. The outside one is the earth, next, is the continent, then country, state, and then city. On the very center of the foldable, inside the city, draw your home.  

Looking for a great resource that introduces physical geography? Check out Geography4kids.com. Most of us think about Geography as just countries and Gross Domestic Products, but there's much more to it. Physical geography is all about the Earth and the things that happen on Earth. Check it out and learn something new!

Having an actual map that can be pieced together makes learning geography that much more real for children. Childandme.com has some map outlines to print off and trace onto different pieces of colored felt (or to save time, carefully hold the printed copy and the felt together as you cut both, while holding them tightly). You can then print out continent names and any other words you might want to include, like equator, north, south, east, and west. Then get a little string for the equator and you've got a great little interactive map!