This project contains 15 questions for younger researchers to consider when planning a trip to a new place. These questions will test students' abilities to think about geography skills like location and direction as well as provide opportunities to learn about new cultural experiences. Students will need either access to age-appropriate Internet resources or books about the countries of their choice. The final results might pair well with a bulletin board or poster display.

This assignment is titled "Let's Explore the Middle East! Use a Map to Find Countries, Cities, Landforms, and Bodies of Water." This assignment includes 20 questions that require students to analyze a map of the Middle East for national borders, capital cities, landforms, and bodies of water. Here are two sample questions: "In which country is Mount Demavend located?" and "Name at least three countries that border the Red Sea." This would make a great introduction to young students preparing to study world regions for the first time.

This packet is titled "Let's Explore America! Use a Map to Find American States, Cities, Landforms, and Bodies of Water." It includes seven assignments you can use to teach essential geography skills. Please see the full preview! This would make a great introduction to young students preparing to study the United States for the first time. You might even consider them "substitute assignments" and leave them for a substitute teacher on a day you are away from the classroom. These assignments will work well individually or as a partner assignment.

This is a map skills assignment for young students that teaches students how to properly use cardinal directions (north, east, south, west) and intermediate directions (northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest) with a map of Europe. So, what makes this assignment different from all of the others that you have used? The assignment is written so that students must interact with the map before they use cardinal and intermediate directions. They must first properly label the cardinal and intermediate directions on the included map's compass rose. Then, they must locate and label 15 European cities and 10 bodies of water. After successfully locating these places, there are 10 questions that require them to think about how people move from one city to another.

Consider purchasing this quick vocabulary assignment to introduce your students to some basic geography terminology about landforms and bodies of water. You might even use it as a vocabulary quiz. The choice is yours! There are twenty terms found in the complete assignment, with kid-friendly definitions, and an answer key for quick, simple grading. The vocabulary words included are: Basin, Bay, Butte, Canyon, Cataract, Delta, Fjord, Flood Plain, Glacier, Island, Isthmus, Mesa, Peninsula, Plain, Plateau, River Mouth, Strait, Tributary, Valley, and Volcano. Also included, please find 6 puzzles: 2 crossword puzzles, 2 word search puzzles, and 2 cryptogram puzzles. For the puzzles, I divided the 20 vocabulary words into two segments. Therefore, each puzzle contains ten vocabulary words. I found that dividing the terms in this manner made retention easier for my students.

Absolute and relative location are two basic, important geography tools that all students must master. Why not teach students these vital skills in a fun, active way? This assignment will do just that! Absolute location, of course, requires students to use latitude and longitude to give their answers. Relative location requires cardinal directions (north, south, east, west) and intermediate directions (northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest). While there are many available assignments to teach these concepts to elementary school and middle school/junior high school students, here’s one with a twist! Students will locate all 32 NFL football teams using absolute and relative location. January 2023 update: Team names and locations have been updated. Also, it’s easier than ever to take the Google Earth tour of NFL Stadiums. This document describes 5 quick, easy steps to get started. Also, all stadiums and respective cities have been updated since last season. This would be an effective assignment near the beginning of the school year, when students are transitioning into autumn and the NFL season opens its newest season. However, its strength will help reinforce skills later in the school year as well. Included, please find the assignment with a chart for record-keeping, an answer key, a blank USA map, a political USA map, and an idea for an extension assignment. Plus, how about this idea for an educational technology twist? You can visit each and every NFL football stadium using Google Tour Builder! There is nothing to install. Simply, follow the link included in this packet and take your students on a virtual tour today.

Would you like to enliven your science lesson with a fun, challenging writing project? The Rainforest Deforestation RAFT Writing Project contains a RAFT writing project for the social studies or science classroom. This project may be used as a creative research project or as a summarizing assignment to end a unit of study on the rainforests. What is a RAFT, you might ask? RAFT is an acronym for a powerful writing strategy that provides rigor, flexibility, and variety. RAFT stands for Role, Audience, Format, and Topic. A RAFT can be implemented in all content areas, thus making it an excellent Writing Across the Curriculum resource. Young writers might pursue one of several genres of writing (expository, narrative, descriptive, argumentative or persuasive) to create one of several products (letter, television commercial, diary entry, etc.).

This assignment is titled "Let's Explore Canada! Use a Map to Find Canadian Provinces, Territories, Cities, Landforms, and Bodies of Water." This assignment includes 20 questions that require students to analyze a map of Canada for boundaries and borders, major cities, landforms, and bodies of water. Here are two sample questions: "Which river forms part of the border between Ontario and the American state of New York?" and "What is the name of Canada's southernmost province?" I also included two basic mapping assignments: students must label maps of the provinces and territories, and the provincial and territorial capital cities. This would make a great introduction to elementary students preparing to study Canada for the first time. It would also work well in any higher elementary or middle school classroom as map skills are still critical needs in these areas. You might even consider it a "substitute assignment" and leave it for a substitute teacher on a day you are away from the classroom. This assignment works well as an individual assignment or as a partner assignment.

Students research the origins of the names of five American sports teams -- the Los Angeles Dodgers, the St. Louis Blues, the Seattle Sounders, the Boston Celtics, and the San Francisco 49ers. What is the city's relationship to the American sports team's name? Is it a historical, cultural, or geographical connection? Or a combination of two or three? Students also create their own team for their communities. They must base their team nicknames on a local historical, cultural, or geographical connection.

This assignment introduces students to the six American standard time zones: Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, Alaska, and Hawaii-Aleutian. Students read a short, original non-fiction story about time zones. Next, they answer 15 questions (including two critical thinking questions) about American time zones.

Pirate Pete is back, me hearties! The loveable goofball pirate is rip-roarin' and ready to teach your kiddies about Christmas traditions in different parts of the world. Join the funny pirate in a discussion about Christmas traditions in Finland, Australia, the Bahamas, Germany, and Japan. Plus, ol' Pete introduces students to a wild and wonderful place called Christmas Island, which is located in the Pacific Ocean. This six-page reading assignment also features a guided reading handout and four assignments to keep your students engaged around the holidays! No small feat, right? Preview before you buy!

This activity will provide a good warm-up activity for the beginning of a unit on map skills, an additional practice for quick finishers, and more. Students will create a mental map of their school, their neighborhood, or their home. A mental map is a map you create in your mind of a familiar place. You have been creating these kinds of maps to navigate from place-to-place since you were very young. Think of it like a drawing of a place you carry around in your mind. If you can visualize a place or location in your mind, you have a strong understand of mental mapping skills already. For example, you have a strong map of your school in your mind if you can walk from one part of your neighborhood to another without asking for help. In this activity, you will draw a mental map on a piece of paper. You may draw a mental map of your school, your neighborhood, or your home. The activity comes with a checklist to guide students when they create their maps.

Consider purchasing this quick vocabulary assignment to introduce your elementary or middle school students to some basic geography terminology about landforms and bodies of water. You might even use it as a vocabulary quiz. The choice is yours! I believe this assignment would be best for kids between the ages of 10-14. There are twenty terms found in the complete assignment, with kid-friendly definitions, and an answer key for quick, simple grading. The assignment includes all five themes of geography (location, place, human-environment interaction, movement, and regions) and major lines of latitude and longitude (Antarctic Circle, Arctic Circle, Equator, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, Prime Meridian). Additional vocabulary terms include: Absolute Location, Degree, Grid, Hemisphere, Latitude, Longitude, Meridian, Parallel, and Relative Location.

My students asked me to explain Kwanzaa recently. I decided to write this assignment to guide the process. "Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Life and Heritage" is a Common Core-ready reading assignment and critical thinking activity. It is intended for upper elementary and middle school students. Consider using it in reading, language arts, or geography class. It is quite flexible! Students will read a two-page passage that explains aspects about the holiday. They will then complete ten questions related to the reading. First, they must use the reading (or a dictionary) to define seven vocabulary words. Some of which are "Tier Two" and "Tier Three" vocabulary words. (If you are not familiar, the "tiers" refer to language objectives in the Common Core standards.) They will also answer three critical thinking questions in sentence form.

This 50-page visual dictionary/workbook assignment gives students an opportunity to learn up to 50 landforms and bodies of water in a fun, completely visual way. Give your students the 21st geography skills they will need in an increasingly "globalized" world. Students must define each geography term, list examples, and then provide a photograph for each. The nice aspect about this assignment is that it is fully customizable to your students' abilities and needs. You may not need all 50 pages, but you can always mix-and-match to fit your curriculum. Let's imagine you are introducing landforms and bodies of water to elementary school students: you might choose ten basic terms from this workbook to teach.

Just in time for those snowy winter months: "How hard is it to predict snow?" is a Common Core-ready reading assignment and critical thinking activity. It is intended for upper elementary and middle school students. Consider using it in reading, language arts, science, or geography class. It is quite flexible! Students will read a two-page passage that explains why forecasting snowfall is no easy process. They will then complete ten questions related to the reading. First, they must use the reading (or a dictionary) to define seven vocabulary words. Some of which are "Tier Two" and "Tier Three" vocabulary words. (If you are not familiar, the "tiers" refer to language objectives in the Common Core standards.) They will also answer three critical thinking questions in sentence form. There are no multiple choice or true-false questions here. I want my students to really use their noggins to succeed on this assignment!

The Flags of the World matching assignment packet requires students to match up the names of countries with their respective flags. The assignments come complete with separate name banks, which you can use (or withhold) depending on how challenging you would like to make the assignment. Answer keys are also included. There are eleven worksheets in this packet. These sheets include two Africa sheets, two Asia sheets, one Australia and Oceania sheet two Europe sheets, one North America, one South America sheet, and two sheets that allow students to test their knowledge of flags of countries from all over the world. This is a full-color assignment that would be great to introduce a new continent of study in a geography unit, to test students' abilities to conduct quick research, or to leave with a substitute teacher.

Are you tired of the same old geography worksheets? Your students are, too! Here is a project to keep them engaged while learning about location, population sizes, and simple logistics. Rock & Pop(ulation) is a collaborative assignment asking students to imagine they are part of a very successful musical act: a rock band, an indie outfit, a country group, or a rap collective. They must plan a tour to play for their thousands of fans. Students must work collaboratively – in groups of three or four – to “route” the tour correctly. They must play municipalities (i.e. cities) with a population size of at least 50,000 based on reported data. They must also be sure that the cities their band schedules to play from night-to-night are not too far apart. In this assignment, the logistics of a tour require large buses of equipment to move from city-to-city with enough time to set up the stage, lighting, instruments, and other equipment before the show.

This assignment is titled "Let's Explore Mexico! Use a Map to Find Cities, Landforms, States, Bodies of Water and More." This assignment includes 20 questions that require students to analyze a map of Mexico for boundaries and borders, major cities, landforms, and bodies of water. This would make a great introduction to middle school students preparing to study Mexico for the first time in either a World Languages class or a geography class. You might even consider it a "substitute assignment" and leave it for a substitute teacher on a day you are away from the classroom. This assignment works well as an individual assignment or as a partner assignment.

This is a 6-page packet addressing the movement theme of geography. Students will read a short passage introducing the concept of movement and then label the locations of the world's greatest banana producers on a blank map. They will then plot the route they think a Mexican banana producer might use to transport their crops to a grocer in the student's community. Last, an enrichment essay assignment requires students to research a top banana-producing country to learn more about the country's process of production, its production history, and the economic impact of banana production.