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Fun Ways To Teach Geography & Free Great Plains Bucket List

January 30, 2026 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

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There are many fun ways to teach geography to homeschool kids besides a snoring boring map. Also, look at my page Hands-On Simple And Best Homeschool Geography Ideas & Tips for more ideas.

Besides sharing ways to keep geography fun I have a free printable which is The Great Plains Road Trip Bucket List. You can grab it below by adding your email.

And geography should not be dry. Especially middle school kids need to feel like geography is an adventure.

Fun Ways To Teach Geography & Free Great Plains Bucket List

You want to teach it through exploration, stories and curiosity.

Additionally, middle school is a great time to add a twist to geography since it can become boring.

Plus challenges, games, and creative writing taps into a child’s natural curiosity.

Table of Contents

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  • GEOGRAPHY LIVING BOOKS FOR KIDS
  • FUN WAYS TO TEACH GEOGRAPHY
  • MORE GEOGRAPHY ACTIVITIES
  • HOW TO GET THE FREE THE GREAT PLAINS ROAD TRIP BUCKET LIST

GEOGRAPHY LIVING BOOKS FOR KIDS

First, I think geography should be learned using as many living books as possible.

Grab a book or two to add to your home library.

13 Geography Living Books

Add some of these living geography books to your home library. All ages will love them.

Paddle-to-the-Sea: A Caldecott Honor Award Winner (Sandpiper Books)

Follow the journey of a little turtle through all the great lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, not only covering; landforms but also dipping into science, and uses figurative language to help children think and understand the story better.

Seabird: A Newbery Honor Award Winner

A carved Ivory Gull tells of oceans all over the world and three generations of sailing families in America. 

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World

In more of a story book fashion we are led around the world to gather ingredients from all over to make an apple pie and it even includes a simple recipe for an apple pie.

Tree in the Trail

The history of the Great Plains and the Santa Fe Trail is told in text and pictures by focusing on a cottonwood tree and the events that happen around it.

Complete Book Of Marvels

Explore the wonders of the world with America's foremost adventurer, Richard Halliburton. In the Complete Book of Marvels Halliburton takes you with him on thrilling journeys to countless wonders of the world, including natural features like Gibraltar, the Grand Canyon, and Mount Fuji, and famous or forgotten temples and ancient cities, and monuments bigger than life. He follows in the footsteps of Demetrius and traverses the Great Wall.

Replete with historical facts, maps, and a treasure trove of unique restored photographs of both well-known and hidden wonders, Halliburton journeys with the reader by his side to reveal the beauty and mystery of the world's greatest sights as if for the very first time. As a youth Richard Halliburton dreamt of seeing the many mysterious lands and exotic locales beyond the horizon, and by the time he was a teenager he set out to do just that. During his life, his voyages took him to an enormous variety of truly marvelous places, from familiar American landmarks to the far reaches of the globe.

Where We Live: Mapping Neighborhoods of Kids Around the Globe

This fascinating look at 16 children’s neighborhoods around the world broadens readers’ understanding of global cultures. This unique illustrated map book explores the neighborhoods of 16 real children from around the world. Author Margriet Ruurs, who met many of these children in her travels, tells the story of each child’s neighborhood by highlighting the places that are important to them, such as where they live, go to school and play, as well as interesting facts about their lives, including the food they eat, their religious practices and the sights and smells they encounter every day. From big cities, such as Amsterdam and Beijing, to small communities, such as Salt Spring Island in Canada and the village of Komanyana in Zambia, each place is special to the children who live there.

Minn of the Mississippi: A Newbery Honor Award Winner

The history of the Mississippi River Valley is told in text and pictures through the adventures of Minn, a snapping turtle, as she travels downstream.

National Parks of the USA (Americana, 1)

Packed with maps and fascinating facts about the flora and fauna unique to each of the 21 parks portrayed, this lushly illustrated coast-to-coast journey documents in large format the nation’s most magnificent and sacred places—and shows why they should be preserved for future generations to enjoy. Explore Florida's river-laced Everglades, travel down the white water rapids of the Grand Canyon, trek across the deserts of Death Valley, and scale the soaring summits of the Rocky Mountains with this book that brings you up close to nature's greatest adventures. Divided by region (East, Central, Rocky Mountains, West, Tropics, and Alaska), a pictographic map at the start of each section shows the locations of the parks to be covered. Each park is introduced by a stunning, poster-worthy illustration of one of its scenes and a summary of its makeup, followed by individual illustrations of the animals and plants that make their homes there.

Strawberry Girl by: Lois Lenski

Strawberries -- big, ripe, and juicy. Ten-year-old Birdie Boyer can hardly wait to start picking them. But her family has just moved to the Florida backwoods, and they haven't even begun their planting. Don't count your biddies 'fore they're hatched, gal young un! her father tells her.

Wow Canada!: Exploring This Land from Coast to Coast to Coast (Wow Canada! Collection)

The multi-award-winning Wow Canada! has steadily wowed readers with its original, witty, and fabulously informative cross-country excursion. This thoroughly updated edition is filled with amazing facts, historical wonders, and descriptions, photos, and illustrations of Canada's most famous sights and hidden gems — it's the perfect accessory for that family car trip across Canada. Eleven-year-old Guy and his family travel from province to province —and even up to Canada’s territories! Guy is the ideal narrator, curious but cool and always armed with a wry comment. Incredible sidebar material offers moments of respite from the family’s high-speed travels, making Wow Canada! both the perfect car trip guidebook and a fantastic armchair travel book.

How the States Got Their Shapes

Why does Oklahoma have that panhandle? Did someone make a mistake?

We are so familiar with the map of the United States that our state
borders seem as much a part of nature as mountains and rivers. Even the oddities—the entire state of Maryland(!)—have become so ingrained that our map might as well be a giant jigsaw puzzle designed by Divine Providence. How the States Got Their Shapes is the first book to tackle why our state lines are where they are. Here are the stories behind the stories, right down to the tiny northward jog at the eastern end of Tennessee and the teeny-tiny (and little known) parts of Delaware that are not attached to Delaware but to New Jersey.

A Child's Geography of the World

A Child's Geography of the World is a general course in geography for juveniles. Hillyer was headmaster at the famed Calvert School and wrote a series of books as part of the curriculum for his students. This title was the result of many years of teaching the subject to young children and of several more years in authoring it. The books is now considered in a classic in home schooling.

Geography: An Illustrated A-Z Glossary: An Introduction To Earth's Geographical Features For Kids

Welcome to Geography: An Illustrated A-Z Glossary by B.C. Lester Books! This book takes you across the world's main landforms and biomes, each with a colorful illustration acWelcome to Geography: An Illustrated A-Z Glossary by B.C. Lester Books! This book takes you across the world's main landforms and biomes, each with a colorful illustration accompanied with a child-friendly definition.

What is a mesa? Or an estuary? What is the difference between a swamp and a marsh?

Covering over 100 geography terms, this book has all the answers! This book is a great, concise introduction to the natural features of Earth for children and is a nice way to spark or develop an interest in geography for kids accompanied with a child-friendly definition.

What is a mesa? Or an estuary? What is the difference between a swamp and a marsh?

Covering over 100 geography terms, this book has all the answers! This book is a great, concise introduction to the natural features of Earth for children and is a nice way to spark or develop an interest in geography for kids.

Next, look at these fun ways to learn geography other than a textbook.

FUN WAYS TO TEACH GEOGRAPHY

  • Make it a road trip to learn one region of the U.S. or world. This is ideal for any family. For example, I have a road trip bucket list for The Great Plains of the U.S. below.
  • Lean about the culture of a country through cooking local dishes.
  • Visit light houses and cemeteries to learn about the people of the area.
  • Drawing areas of the U.S. helps kids to commit the area to memory. Add a watercolor element or paint element to your drawing.
  • Explore an area through the eyes of a person that lived there. What did he eat? What did he do? Why did he live in that area?
  • Watch movies or documentaries to learn the geography of an area.
  • Make it a 50 state geography quest.
  • Create lists of landmarks.

Also, look at these other geography activities.

MORE GEOGRAPHY ACTIVITIES

  • How To Teach Geography To Preschoolers: Around The World Bin
  • How To Create Elementary Geography Curriculum Using Living Books
  • Amazing Geography Landforms: An Engaging Triorama Tutorial for Kids
  • 13 Living Geography Books For Kids Who Love Exploring
  • Learn US Geography the Fun Way: Free States 3-Part Flashcards
  • 100 BEST Books for Kids from all 50 States (Easy Geography)
Fun Ways To Teach Geography & Free Great Plains Bucket List

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HOW TO GET THE FREE THE GREAT PLAINS ROAD TRIP BUCKET LIST

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1) CLICK HERE ON THIS LINK TO SIGN UP ON MY EMAIL LIST & TO GET THIS FREEBIE

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