Homeschool Co-op: Maps Class

4/22/2015 


I taught Maps/Geography as a class for the Kindergarten-1st Graders this semester at our homeschool co-op.  


I had 12 kids in my class - 10 boys (!!!) and 2 girls. My son was one of the boys. Him I can handle. But him along with 9 other boys as crazy as he is... was more than I could handle! I was very thankful for the other mom who was my faithful class helper. 




I used a curriculum that a fellow homeschooling mom had used a few years ago at our co-op for this same class. It was nice to have lesson plans already laid out for me. I changed a few things to add my own flair, but I appreciated her willingness to share what she'd created and done before. Why reinvent the wheel?! 



The kids enjoyed doing a floor puzzle of the USA and another floor puzzle of the world (focusing on the seven continents, which we memorized). 


I brought in numerous books for the kids to look at / read that were related to geography. One fun project was to find the compass rose on every map. 

 


On our last day, we enjoyed a class party. I made a huge cookie shaped like our state of Indiana and decorated it with a few major rivers and cities. I got the idea for this from a project my daughter did a few years ago   and also from this Indiana blogger/teacher.    
We ate the cookie in class (or about 1/4 of it, actually, because it was HUGE).


On party day, I had the kids play "pin the state on the map" with a few states (like Indiana, California, Florida, Oklahoma). This was a lot of fun. Here are three of the students showing where their Indiana states ended up. 


This boy got Oklahoma RIGHT WHERE IT BELONGS while blind-folded. Unbelievable! 


A few days ago, I caught my son "playing school" with this map, teaching his class about the compass rose and where to find our state on the map.

Success! 

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