Geography Matching Game.

Thursday 20th February 2014

For some people geography is interesting enough on it's own. But when you have a child who's eyes glaze over if the book has too much information in it and not enough pictures. Trying to find a way to teach this topic can be difficult.

So I had a light bulb moment and came up with a interesting way to teach this. More hands on and I guess inspired by some of the Montessori research I have been doing lately.

I found pictures on google of basic maps, flags, currency, of about 9 different countries. Then wrote down the word 'Hello' from the language of those countries too.

So her task is to find the map, flag, currency and greeting from the same country. 

When she thinks she has guessed right, she puts them on a tray (or and upside down lid).

Then she turns them over to see if they all match. If they don't match (meaning not all from the same country), then she puts the ones that don't match back and has another guess till they all match.

On the back of the map, is interesting facts about that country. Like capital, largest city, famous buildings, famous people, lakes or rivers, highest mountain, favorite sport, national animal, that kind of thing.

On the back of the flag, is population. I found this was a great way for Miss Personality to practice reading out the number, as in thiry three million, four hundred and three thousand, and three hundred and six people.

On the back of the currency, is the name of the currency used and then I compared it with our currency. Then we talked about whether the currency of the country that was matched up, was more or less than our countries currency.

On the back of the greeting, was what language or languages were spoken in that country.

The great thing about this game is you can keep extending on it in any way you want to. Like pictures of famous buildings, favorite sport, national animals, where ever you would like to take it.

Miss Personality enjoyed it so much, she asked if I could add some more countries of her choice to the mix.

So for now I have found a winner. Will keep using it as long as there is an interest and keep adding other pictures to it too.