From sea to shining sea, and beyond
In 6th grade, students look at America with a geographer's eye. They review the 50 states and regions of the United States, then zoom out to the Western Hemisphere: North, Central and South America. They read maps for physical features like the Rocky Mountains, the Mississippi River and the Andes, and connect geography to how people live, from farming in the Great Plains to cities on the coasts. Many classes also compare early civilizations of the Americas, like the Maya, Aztec and Inca. The click comes when a map stops being a picture and starts telling a story.
Geography is easier to remember when kids sing it, draw it and use it.
Hand out a blank map and give students three minutes to label as many states, regions or features as they can. Then check and fill in the gaps. Pulling it from memory is what makes it stick.
Why it works: pulling an answer out of memory makes it stick far better than rereading it, one of the strongest findings in learning research (Dunlosky and colleagues, 2013).
Try it with50 States SongSongsOpen it →Play a 50 states song as a warm-up a couple of times a week for a month. By the end, most students can list them in order. Short repeats over weeks beat one big memorize night.
Why it works: spreading practice out over days is one of the two most effective study methods in a major research review (Dunlosky and colleagues, 2013).
Try it with50 States SongSongsOpen it →Have students draw a region from memory, then add rivers, mountains and three cities. Drawing forces them to think about where things really are and why people settled there.
Why it works: kids understand an idea best when they touch it, then draw it, then write it, the order the U.S. Department of Education recommends for elementary math.
They review U.S. states and regions and study the geography of North, Central and South America, including landforms, rivers, climate and how people use the land. Many classes also cover early civilizations of the Americas.
Songs work wonders. Pair a states song with a map and practice a few minutes a few times a week. Then quiz with a blank map to see what stuck.
Most classes use five regions: the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest and West. Each has its own landforms, climate and resources.
Keep a map on the wall and look up places from the news, sports or family trips. Plan a pretend road trip together. Geography sticks when it connects to real life.
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