Kindergarten Geography

Last year Quartus studied map skills with Beginning Geography grade K-2 by Evan Moor, just like all my other kids did during Kindergarten.  I highly recommend it!

At the end of the book, it has some great worksheets of each continent with animals and their habitats.  When my little one is done with the whole workbook, then I photocopy these maps, put them in a 3 prong folder, and then we pull  The Big Book of Animals by DK Publishing off the shelf.

 

Quartus looks at one of the continent map worksheets, chooses an animal, then finds it's name and habitat in the map key.

Then he finds that habitat in the book.  There's one or two full color pages for each region.  I love that it doesn't just have a generic "forest" page, for example.  There are sections for North American Forests, Central American Rain Forests, South American Rain Forests, African Rain Forests, Madagascan Rain Forests, European Deciduous Forests, European Coniferous Forests, and Asian Tropical Forests.  This makes the book ideal for this activity.

Next, I have him read all the animal names on the page.

Once he chooses one of the animals that he likes, he has to draw it "near it's friend" from the same habitat on the map.

While he draws, I read the description of the animal he chose out loud and/or teach additional tidbits that I know.

Finally, he writes the name of the animal right next to it.

 I love this activity because it has so much educational value and provides opportunity to practice things from different subjects!

• review map skills (compass directions, map key)
• learn continent names and location on world map
• use table of contents to find specific pages
• review what makes habitats different from each other/why certain animals thrive in certain places
• practice drawing skills
• reading
• writing