Geography Teaching Resources
Although maths and English are very important, we shouldn’t stick to just teaching English and maths. Looking at the geography of our world is a great way to interest children and teaches us some skills at the same time. That’s geography skills and maths and English! Here are some useful geography teaching resources that I have found on the internet.
One of the good things about geography is that there are lots of photos lots of different types of pictures and diagrams, and lots of videos we can look at.
These sites are mainly for children up to 11 although some of the books suggested at the end of this article are for older pupils.
Our World
Our World is a welsh primary school site showing local geography, and then European and world geography that the children at a primary school have investigated. It is aimed at other children in their school but it is a fantastic resource for anyone.
Cafod
5-7 year olds
Here we have a PowerPoint and a PDF. They tell the story of different children, the homestead living and the food they eat. They often have to grow their own food.
Here we have a PowerPoint and a set of teachers notes. The teachers notes of really useful. There are three questions for each picture to ask for children and some suggested activities. You might want to just pick one or two pictures to look at you don’t have to use the whole set.
7-11 year olds
There is a photo pack you can buy here but you don’t need to as there’s a PDF so you can look at it all online. There are 34 pages packed with pictures, questions, activities for you to do with your child.
There’s a rather clever video at the top of the page. You can actually click on a number of hotspots so that you can choose which child’s story you’re looking at. You can also look at various themes by clicking on the appropriate hotspot. The hotspots become available when you are 20 seconds into the video, and they are also available at the end of the video so you can choose something else.
Fairtrade bananas
Click here for a five minute film and a short drag and drop activity to do.
Films for Children – click here for a few more films on various topics
Oxfam Educational Resources
For 8 -16-year-olds
Oxfam have some resources entitled Food for thought.
There is one section for 8 -11 year olds and another for 11 -16 year olds.
In the first section, there is a fictional island and a role -playing game aimed at thinking about issues of sustainability and fairness related to buying land.
In the second section there is a situation for you to investigate concerning the forbidding of land to be sold for biofuels.
Traidcraft
There are lots of resources on the Traidcraft for schools website, especially related to Geography.
These go all the way from KS1 to KS5 and there are lots and good PowerPoints and activities.
These are some of the activities for KS2:
You might also want to look at the Activities and Games Page.
Primary Resources UK
A lot of resources on this site for primary school children so that’s everybody between the ages about 5 and 11.
These have been collected from different teachers over quite a large period of time. The quality is variable partly because some of the resources look quite old fashioned now.
However, there are masses of PowerPoints and other documents which is very easy to just use either on the computer or to print off if it’s an activity.
There are a number of pages for geography. Each one has a box like this at the top so just click on whatever topic you would like and you’ll get further resources.
3D Geography
When I first came across this site it was onto a page of photographs, so I wondered why it was called 3D Geography. However, once I saw the first page it was obvious.
There are lots of models that you can make.
There are examples of rainforest and ocean dioramas that were made by Year 2 children, and there are some backgrounds you can use.
As well as these there are quizzes, word searches, vocabulary lists , animal facts posters and much more.
Using pictures
You will have noticed that there are plenty of picture photobanks amongst the resources. If we are using the photos publically then we have to be careful about copyright. For tutors – sites like https://unsplash.com/ or https://pixabay.com/ are really useful and some of these pictures are amazing.
For instance, I have typed in China on Unsplash and you get 1,307 amazing pictures come up.
https://unsplash.com/search/photos/china
I have done the same on Pixabay and another 4000+ come up but here you have to be careful and some of the pictures will take you to other sites where you need to pay for the pictures. These are clearly marked, but just be careful. Ignore the sponsored photos and choose from the “4,093 Free photos of China” section.
If you are just looking for some to use at home with your own child then you can be more relaxed about your use of pictures.
KS1 Geography Video
Watch this inspirational Geography video showcasing the work of Jane Whittle in an early map making journey with her class.
This would work well whatever the number of children you had, whether it is just you and your child or there are more of you.
Teachers TV: Journey sticks from Tes on Vimeo.
One-off articles
Using music together with geography
Fairtrade around the world – KS1 – with PowerPoint and activity
Some resources from Amazon
(I do get a small commission if you buy any of the resources below.)
Wildcard Games Mapominoes Europe The Ultimate Geography Game by Wildcard Games
Where in the World Snap Card Game
Yongse 40cm Inflatable World Earth Globe Atlas Map Beach Ball
Wildgoose Education WG2824 Thinking…Geography South America Card (Pack of 20)
Books
Where On Earth?: Geography Without the Boring Bits
KS2 Discover & Learn: Geography – Study Book, Year 3 & 4 (CGP KS2 Geography)
The Usborne Geography Encyclopedia by Gillian Doherty With internet links. Great for KS2.
Geography of the World by DK Publishing
GCSE Geography | Pocket Posters: The Pocket-Sized GCSE Geography Revision Guide
My Revision Notes: WJEC GCSE Geography
If you have any suggestions, comments or questions please put them in the comments below. I look forward to hearing from you.
I remember having a obsession with learning about exotic animals when i was a child. I remember having a pack of cards that will actually have a lot of details like where they come from, what type of food they prefer. Its a shame that when we grow up in most cases this interest perish, but in others might turn into a passion and this is not a bad department to be, traveling the world and actually studying geography is really interesting.
Hi Erick, isn’t it great when children, or adults, get interested in a subject. It gives them so much pleasure.
As a teacher I loved preparing the topics we were looking at for my children and now I have discovered that blogging is a great way for me to continue researching different topics and sharing this information.
I hope there will be some people who find it useful and others who just enjoy reading it.
Wow, you really have a lot of resources for children’s geography. I think geography is super, super important. Most adults can’t even tell people where other countries are, let alone know anything basic about them. It’s a great idea to start them early. Who knows, maybe they’ll develop an interest! Thanks for sharing!
Hi,
I agree, and it is fun as well as interesting to find out about the world we live in..
Thanks!
Julia
I’m impressed any time that an adult takes (or makes) the time to dive into and make available the resources to teach our young ones. In this time of immediate gratification, it is refreshing to find a site that allows a parent to slow it down and spend time sharing information that matters! To put it into perspective, this is a carefully curated piece of art that makes it easy for a parent or teacher – or both – to take quality content and teach life lessons that shape the future of our children. Great job!
I agree with your article. Education should not be set in stone on a particular curriculum with a bias set of subjects. Geography is very important and just as important as other subjects like math and English but in its own way. Something interesting i should say. Science and geography are about exportation. People work so hard in trying to get people to become explorers into subjects like science and geography, only because when we are children we are taught to ignore our natural curiosity and desire to explore the world around us. So although we wanted to naturally explore the world from when we are kids, as adults we grow to lose that desire. We focus on topics like math and english far too much when there is a whole world out there beyond the scope of a text book.
I believe that geography is a great way to teach a young mind, or any aged mind for that matter. And the complex academic qualities that subjects such as math, english and even science bring to a mind are all usable within the world of geography anyway. Why we give geography such a miss does perplex me!
The website “our world” seems like a fantastic idea to bring our world to life in the eyes of a young mind. The visual keys and video feature show that through interaction learning is much more fun, and to be honest we are visual creatures, we learn better from images, and videos than we do from plain standard text.
I say this page is full of great ideas on the topic of geography, and it would be a shame for anyone to give it a miss!
Couldn’t agree with you more – we live in a wonderful world that needs exploring!!
This is a great way of turning your passion into something that can make you money in the long run. I remember when I was younger and still in school, I was really into geography. Sadly as time went by I didn’t proceed to further expand my knowledge in the subject. This is an excellent post I am definitely bookmarking your website and I can’t wait for your next article.
Hi Alex,
You must have spotted the Wealthy Affiliate ad on the side! It is true.
I write about subjects I enjoy and I hope will be of interest and use to others.
I also am learning how to monetise my site with the help of this community.
To learn more you can click on the advert or on the about Julia page
https://tutor-your-child.com/about-julia
where there is a link for it.