Back to Geography Lesson Plan

Globe Game

Subjects

• Social Studies
  --Geography
  

Grade

• K-2
• 3-5
  
• 6-8
• 9-12
  

Brief Description

Map game challenges students to develop geography skills.

Objectives

Students will

• work cooperatively.
• ask questions to help their team narrow down the location of a "mystery location."
• play fairly and thoughtfully.

Keywords

geography, world, game

Materials Needed

• a map (or globe) for each team

Lesson Plan

Make a game out of geography with this activity. Arrange students into groups of four. Provide each group with a globe or a detailed map. (That map might be a map of your town or state, the country, or the world -- depending on the focus of the curriculum at your grade level.) Have students in each group select a location on the map.

• If you are studying your city or town, they might select a specific location within the city or town.
• If you are studying your state, students might select a town within the state.
• Older students might select a country on a world map.

After students have selected a location, start with the first team. That team fields yes or no questions from the other teams, one question at a time. (Team 2 asks a question first, then Team 3, 4) The questions might start out general and get more specific. You or a specified game leader monitors the questions asked to make sure they are fair questions. For example, if students are working with world maps, questions might include:

• Is the place on the continent of Africa?
• Is the place north of the equator?
• Is the place east of Mali?
• Is part of the country located between 10 and 20 degrees South latitude?

If students are working with a local map, questions might include:

• Is the place on the east side of town?
• Is the place north of Liberty Street?
• Can you see Blue Lake from this place?
• Does the place begin with the letter B?

As questions are asked, team members refer to their maps and agree on a response. If they give a "Yes" answer, the team that asked the question can choose to make a guess as to the name of the specific place. If the team guesses correctly, they earn five points. If the guess is incorrect, the next team asks a question that will help identify the place.

After Team 1's place is guessed, it is Team 2's turn to answer questions about the place it selected; Team 3 begins the questioning.

More Game Suggestions

• When it is a team's turn to ask a question, 1) students on each team might work together to create questions and give responses, or 2) one student at a time might ask a question. If the latter is the case, students on each team need to establish a sequence of players within their team, so each player asks one question before any player asks a second question.
• Each team should have some kind of barrier/wall/carrel so they can get close to their map or globe without opposing team members being able to see which area of the map/globe they are looking at; that is especially important as questions get more specific.

Assessment

The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Lesson Plan Source

Education World

Submitted By

Gary Hopkins

National Standards

SOCIAL SCIENCES: Geography
GRADES K - 12
NSS-G.K-12.1 The World in Spatial Terms

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