Modern Parents Messy Kids

We're all about finding ways to make family life better while keeping our sense of humor. Check out our famous MPMK Top Toy Awards, already viewed over 7,000,000 times!

  • Start Here
  • Travel
  • The Kids
    • Our Famous Toy Gift Guides
    • Play Activities & Art Ideas
  • The Home
    • In the Kitchen
    • Project Organize Your ENTIRE Life
      • Cleaning House
      • Meal Planning
      • Decluttering
      • Organizing
      • Schedules & To Do Lists
      • Daily Rhythms
    • The Holidays
    • Photography & Memory Keeping
  • Parenting
    • Parenting Discussions
    • Happy Family Habits
    • The Book Nook
    • Mom Health & Beauty

Play Theme Cheat Sheet #4: Exploring Our World

July 10 by Steph (MPMK Founder)

Geography, Map and flag learning activities for kids

We’re past due for this month’s play theme cheat sheet.  Ready for another stellar list of ways to play all month long?  I chose learning about the world around us for July for two reasons:

  1. It seemed like a great educational theme to cover while school’s out and so many families are hitting the road for vacation.
  2. We’ve been watching Discovery Channel’s new series, North America, with C and have all been learning a ton.  (Sidenote: I love this program for teaching kids about the continent we live on and for the most part it’s very benign.  However, there is the occasional mass frog humping session or shot of Eagles playing frisbee with a duck head.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.)

Here’s a whole gaggle of ideas for teaching kids about the world around them through play. Geography as well as multiculturalism is covered so dig in, enjoy, and happy July!

 Activities

  • Make jumbo map coloring sheets on the cheap
  • Play memory, go fish, or snap with free printable flag cards.
  • Print, cut, and fold globe
  • Make a geography nesting set.
  • Make a USA jigsaw puzzle with this free template.
  • Learn why countries fly flags.
  • Make montessori style continent bags.
  • Make your own globe light or map pendant.
  • Make post card geography flashcards.
  • Make a felt continent map.
  • Make a plantable paper earth.
  • Make famous landmark blocks.
  • Make map magnets.
  • Map the places in the stories your read.

Apps & TV Series

  • Flat Stanley
  • Geoguessr
  • Planet Earth – The complete BBC series
  • Discovery Channel’s North America – This is currently airing on TV and C really enjoys it.

Music

  • World Music – We’ve listened to this daily in the car for years. Many of the other multicultural CDs from Putumayo Presents are also wonderful!

Books

  • Children Just Like Me: A Unique Celebration of Children Around the World
  • A Life Like Mine: How Children Live Around the World
  • Miroslav Sasek’s “This is…” series.  This is London, This is Paris, This is Rome, This is Hong Kong and many, many more!

Toys, Puzzles & Games

  • Melissa and Doug USA Floor Puzzle – We have this and my almost 5 year gets really proud when he puts it together, I love that each piece is in the shape of a state instead of a traditional jigsaw shape.
  • Toob Around the World Play Set – Toobs are also great for lots of different animal sets from different parts of the world.
  • EeBoo USA Bingo game
  • LeapFrog LeapReader Interactive World Map (works with Tag Reader)
  • Eeboo Life On Earth Matching Game
  • Eeboo I Never Forget a Face Matching Game

*Post contains affiliate links

Other Play Theme Cheat Sheets:

Ways to Play with Nature (Inside and Out)

Sports!

Warm Weather Play

Share
Pin
Tweet
Email

Filed Under: Educational Activities, Play Theme Cheat Sheets, The Make & Play Vault Tagged With: educational play activities, flag activities, geography activities, geography play activities, kids geography activities, learning about our world, map activities, play activities for kids, play ideas for kids, play theme cheat sheet, playtheme cheat sheet, playtime activities for toddlers, world activities

Get your kids' kit

Finally Get Organized

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Our Famous Gift Guides

MPMK's Famous Gift Guides

Find the Perfect Toy!

Copyright © 2018 · Parallax Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in