Fun Geography Activities for Tweens

These fun geography activities are a great way to get your older kids excited about the subject. Middle school geography can be extremely interesting.

Finding creative and interactive approaches to studying can make all the difference in helping tweens learn about the world. Luckily, this is a subject that doesn’t have to limit itself simply to reading textbooks. It’s super easy to make geography fun for middle schoolers.

From playing a geography game to exploring the world through food, we’re sharing a bunch of our favorite hands-on learning ideas that you can use in your homeschool.

All of these things can be easily added to a lesson plan, so you’ll have no trouble fitting them into your school day. So use them to build your middle schooler’s geography knowledge and global perspective.

Fun Geography Activities

Are you looking for fresh and engaging ways to teach your middle schooler geography? Use these hands-on geography activities to take your tweens on a geographic adventure!

Why Teach Geography?

Geography is an incredibly important subject to teach, and should be a part of your homeschool plans.

At its core, geography introduces students to the world around them and helps them develop a deeper understanding of the global community they live in.

It helps kids make connections between cultures while providing an invaluable insight into how the physical geography of an area affects its inhabitants.

Geography teaches children to be compassionate towards others, allowing them to build bridges across cultural boundaries that can open up opportunities for life-changing experiences.

What do you learn in middle school geography?

Middle school geography is a fascinating subject for teens to learn about. It covers geographical features, economics, and cultures.

Students learn important geography terms and concepts, such as mapping, climate and weather patterns, and natural resources.

They also study how humans interact with the environment and make decisions based on geography.

Geography Tools

Here are some educational resources that will help you teach geography. These are affiliate links.

• world atlas
• wall map
• global cookbook

World AtlasLaminated World Map & US MapCooking Global Feast

 

How Do You Make Geography Fun for Kids?

Geography may not always be the most exciting of subjects for tweens, but it’s actually easy to make it engaging. There are lots of different ways for kids to have fun learning about geography.

The best way to make geography interesting is to make it as interactive as possible. Try hands-on activities in your lessons instead of only relying on a textbook.

From cool projects like this sinkhole experiment and interactive online games, to geography-related living books and world geography board games, teaching with immersive tools will help kids remember what they’re learning while making it enjoyable. 

GEOGRAPHY ACTIVITIES FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL

Remember that hands-on doesn’t always have to include putting together some huge project. In fact, there a ton of different activities you can use as part of your geography lesson plans.

They work well for families, small groups of friends, or as part of a homeschool co-op class.

Here are ten fun activities to do with your older kids.

Printable Scavenger Hunt

Use this world scavenger hunt to get your tweens comfortable using maps and an atlas.

They’ll have to find the different countries of the world, capital cities, and physical features, using the clues and their map skills.

City Comparison

Have kids compare your local area (city or town) to another cultural center in terms of physical and cultural geography. Let them analyze things like landforms, climate patterns, population size, diversity, food culture, customs and traditions.

You can sit down to do it together as a geography lesson or they can put what they learn into a fun presentation to share.

Make Your Own Country

Let your kids create their own country.

As they build their imaginary country, they’ll need to identify its unique physical geography (mountain ranges, deserts, bodies of water), population characteristics (language & religion), government systems and laws, as well as its economy (development & production).

This is an excellent semester project for your middle schooler.

Geography Games

Put aside the textbook and play some geography games together. It’s an excellent hands-on activity and great addition to a social studies class.

DIY Travel Brochure

If you have creative tweens, let them make a detailed travel brochure for a location they’re excited about.

They can include facts they’ve learned and unique features that would get someone excited to visit.

Build Landmarks

Create famous landmarks with LEGOs while you’re studying specific locations from different parts of the world.

Can your kids recreate the Parthenon in Greece, the Colosseum in Rome, or the Eiffel Tower in Paris?

3-D Map

Make a 3-D map of a place your tween is currently studying or would like to visit.

We made a salt dough map highlighting the natural features of the Nile River one year and my kids loved it! You can even turn it into an edible map by using something like cookie dough instead of clay.

Go Geocaching

Head out on a hike and spend time geocaching together. It’s a easy way to get teens comfortable using a GPS system while going on a treasure hunt.

Geography Dinner

Geography dinners are an excellent way to study the culture of an area.

As you research other countries or different cultures together, make food from that region for dinner. Encourage your tweens to research recipes and invite students to do some of the cooking.

During the year, choose a different country to highlight.

We did this geography activity when my kids were younger and it so much fun!

DIY Passport

Create a own country passport as a fun activity for tracking the locations you’re studying.

Your tweens can help design it so it’s personal to them. Then, stamp the passport “travel” around the world.

More Geography Resources

Looking for more? Here are additional activities to build your tween’s knowledge of geography.

• Printable latitude and longitude scavenger hunt
• Nerf gun maps
• Geography terms BINGO
• Play battle of the states

These geography activities for tweens are engaging, a lot of fun, and sure to keep your middle schooler learning in new ways. They’re simple to implement, so go ahead and choose a few to add to your geography lessons.

Hopefully you see how easy it is to get your tweens excited about geography!

Which one of these fun middle school geography activities are you going to do first?