KungFuPanda Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 I'm looking for the most painless way to get a 4-6th grader labeling maps. We've got history and culture covered, but the map skills are lacking. Does there exist a board game, video, CD of songs, or EVEN a curriculum that will achieve this without putting us both to sleep? Thanks! KFP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mytwomonkeys Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 we use & like seterra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momling Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 Shepard software has great online game/quizzes. Stack the countries is good if you have an iPhone/pod/pad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skeeterbug Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 This is going to sound snarky, but why don't you have them, um....label maps? :tongue_smilie: Really, that's what we do. I print a labelled map and an unlabelled map and we label them. We do the same map everyday until we have it memorised. Have you read The Core? In the chapter on geography she goes one step further...you actually draw the maps themselves. I'm planning to do that eventually. One of the DWN books (I think it is book 7?) is good for a very simple intro to drawing a world map. Not sure if it would be too young for your kids. Beyond that, we have the Montessori geography maps which are excellent but $$$. If I didn't have these I would get GeoPuzzles. There's also Geography Songs, there's an app called Stack the Countries, and here's some online map puzzles. And we also flip through various atlases together and just turn the pages. I don't have any board games but there are plenty of good ones, hopefully someone will speak up about those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KungFuPanda Posted August 18, 2012 Author Share Posted August 18, 2012 We'd always just done all of the SOTW map work and I did nothing formal past that. However, yesterday I had one kid arguing that the capital of Wales was Glasgow while the other insisted it was Edinburg. I have declared it Intensive Geography Year. I figure sequential history can take a back seat for one year while we set things straight. Thanks for all of the suggestions. I'm looking everything up today. I don't want to wait until the last minute or anything! Learning Geography by Art (?) looks intriguing. Does anyone have any real life experience/advice about that one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyK Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 (edited) I really like geography apps -- stack the states and stack the countries are fun enough my kids do them recreationally. The other ones, not so much, but they aren't hard to get them to do together. I don't remember the other ones by name so I will post later when I find the ipad. I like freerice and they now have several subjects: GEOGRAPHY World Landmarks Identify Countries on the Map World Capitals Flags of the world We have had my kids navigating on recent out-of-town trips (with my providing backup). We fly several times a year and my kids enjoy playing games with the inflight magazine maps where they plot out their dream trip and tell me how we would fly to get there. ETA: addtional apps -- Geomaster Plus -- Geo Map Quiz -- Geographia Edited August 18, 2012 by EmilyK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuovonne Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 I'm looking for the most painless way to get a 4-6th grader labeling maps. We've got history and culture covered, but the map skills are lacking. Does there exist a board game, video, CD of songs, or EVEN a curriculum that will achieve this without putting us both to sleep? I used Visualize World Geography (VWG). My kids can now label all the countries in the world thanks to this program. I printed blank maps of each continent / region and laminated them. I also wrote the names of all the countries on post-it flags (not regular post-its, but the sticky flags which are clear). I'd pick a region and have my kids use the post-it flags to label as many countries as they knew. Then we'd watch a few videos from VWG and the kids would label a few more countries. We did the same thing every day until the kids could label all the countries without watching the video. Each continent took my older DD about a week to memorize. My younger DD needed a few extra days. The whole process was quick and painless, and took almost none of my time. The only prep work was making a set of flags and maps for each kid. Once I explained the system to the kids all I had to do was check their maps once they were labeled. I really like the post-it flags because - it is much faster than handwriting names - it is easy to fix mistakes - it is portable - if the kid is stuck on a particular country, she can skip it and come back to it without risking a wrong guess (unlike most computer games) - it takes minimal storage space - kids can do it on their own, and I can check at my leisure I really like Visualize World Geography because - the mnemonics *work* - the DVD does the teaching for me with as much repetition at they need - my kids like watching the videos Some caveats about Visualize World Geography - be prepared for sticker shock when you see how much it costs - some of the videos are annoying (not vulgar, more like bad puns) - don't expect VWG to do more than it claims Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomatHWTK Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 Sheppard's Software has some great online map games. I am using these worksheets: http://www.tlsbooks.com/geographyworksheets.htm Plus a few other resources from Currclick. I'm taking one section of the US at a time and reviewing the names of the states, having the kids add information to an outline of the state and learning a little about it. My DD learned many of the state names by playing a game on Always IceCream. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyK Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 We are really enjoying postcrossing.com. As you collect postcards, there might be fun ways to work it into country studies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsingscrapper Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 we use & like seterra :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thundersweet Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 I used Visualize World Geography (VWG). My kids can now label all the countries in the world thanks to this program. I printed blank maps of each continent / region and laminated them. I also wrote the names of all the countries on post-it flags (not regular post-its, but the sticky flags which are clear). I'd pick a region and have my kids use the post-it flags to label as many countries as they knew. Then we'd watch a few videos from VWG and the kids would label a few more countries. We did the same thing every day until the kids could label all the countries without watching the video. Each continent took my older DD about a week to memorize. My younger DD needed a few extra days. The whole process was quick and painless, and took almost none of my time. The only prep work was making a set of flags and maps for each kid. Once I explained the system to the kids all I had to do was check their maps once they were labeled. I really like the post-it flags because - it is much faster than handwriting names - it is easy to fix mistakes - it is portable - if the kid is stuck on a particular country, she can skip it and come back to it without risking a wrong guess (unlike most computer games) - it takes minimal storage space - kids can do it on their own, and I can check at my leisure I really like Visualize World Geography because - the mnemonics *work* - the DVD does the teaching for me with as much repetition at they need - my kids like watching the videos Some caveats about Visualize World Geography - be prepared for sticker shock when you see how much it costs - some of the videos are annoying (not vulgar, more like bad puns) - don't expect VWG to do more than it claims We will be using this as well. I am planning to purchase soon. Thanks for the flag idea! Sandy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skeeterbug Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 I used Visualize World Geography (VWG). My kids can now label all the countries in the world thanks to this program. This looks so, so effective! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delirium Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 We also love seterra. Really thankful for all the other resources though, great list! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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