What is Map Masters:
Map Skill practice (along with US geography) was taught in fourth grade in my state. I really loved this content! It was quite a bit of rote memorization for states and capitals but the journey we took across the U.S. made it really fun to connect with the rest of the US – many of my students hadn’t been outside our state! The culmination of our trip learning about regions and state history ended with Map Masters!
We did this for US states and capitals (location included), but you could do it with any geography content. This was a huge undertaken for students and they almost saw it as a rite of passage for our grade.
Mastering geography skill knowledge:
Map Masters were students who aced the final exam on the first try. They knew this was a big deal and worked hard to study.
I love using Sharpies to sign the Map as a special significance and that it was in “essence” a trophy that years later students would see. That was plenty motivation enough! I did let students retest to all get their names on the board – only ones completing it correctly the first time were prize winners.
Students also got a special prize for being the first to complete in addition to their certificate. Believe it or not, all these were from Dollar Tree! They were treasured and not costly. I made sure to wait on prizes until I knew how many students would get the title.
FREE Map Master certificate
Map Master is a FREE download if you want to use it in your classroom. Tag @sssteaching I’d love to see them!
US Geography Favorites
- ABSOLUTE FAVORITE – HANDS. DOWN. VIDEO: Tour the States! The kids loved it and actually it did not get old on repeat a million times (because it felt like we watched it that much!) The linked post has my best songs/videos to use in the classroom!!
I haven’t personally used this one but would be great for a postcard exchange! We did one and I would have loved to have this. I thought these would be expensive but I was surprised at how reasonable they were.
This would be fun to scratch off as you go and would make a great class momento. I think each student having a turn would be so much fun.
Build your own States Coloring Poster
This was seriously a LIFE. SAVER! Students would coordinate colors and I gave each student a page. We worked on while we listened to video or they even worked on at recess in fourth grade. We made the completed poster part of our parent teacher student led conferences
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This post originally appeared at SSSTeaching.
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