Make A Difference This Geography Awareness Week
What Is Geography?
Geography is a union of the social sciences and natural sciences. Geography informs us about our natural environments, the places and communities we live and work in, how the Earth is changing, how individual and societal actions contribute to this and the importance of location.
When Is Geography Awareness Week?
Geography Awareness Week is celebrated on the third week of November every year.
Who Created Geography Awareness Week?
National Geographic created Geography Awareness Week 25 years ago to encourage everyone to think and learn about how spaces and places affect us.
Geography Awareness Week is an opportunity for people to focus on the importance of geography through events, lessons and conversations with politicians and business leaders to name but a few. Join in on the social media conversations by following #GeoWeek and #ThatsGeography.
Photo by Aslı Yılmaz on Unsplash
7 Tips For Introducing Kids To Geography
1. Animals
Animals are a simple way of teaching tots about geography by telling them where their favourite animal is from e.g. Lions are found in Africa below the Sahara Desert, whilst kangaroos are found in Australia and New Guinea.
Our Tiger Tribe Animal All-Stars colouring book is packed with wild animals so kids can build on their animal knowledge whilst working on their colouring skills. Plus, Tiger Tribe itself comes from Australia so there's plenty of conversations to be had about Down Under!
2. Puzzles
Puzzles (especially when they're maps) are great for little ones to examine a picture for a long period of time. The act of piecing a puzzle together ensures they keep referring to the whole picture, flitting between the image on the box and the puzzle pieces. This is a great way to develop recall and memory.
Suitable for kids aged 3 years and up, our World Map Puzzle is a beautifully illustrated wooden puzzle that is bound to fascinate young minds. Each continent is colour coded and features famous landmarks from various countries. Once the puzzle is complete, there is plenty of opportunity for discussion - little ones can talk about the places they may have been on holiday and compare the sizes of different countries.
To take the geography knowledge up a notch, we also have our Europe Jigsaw Puzzle that features 25 puzzle pieces with the names of each European country on them. The baseboard is also annotated to make it easier for kids to learn countries by heart.
3. Books
Reading is a fun way for inquisitive minds to digest everything about the world! The ZooBooKoo European Cubebook is suitable for kids aged 5 years + and has facts and figures on capitals, populations, languages and more. The tactical design has bite size chunks of information to help recall, avoid overloading and keep the geography information flowing.
Books are also useful for learning a new language! ZooBooKoo's French Solar System Cubebook will have space fanatics learning about the planets whilst brushing up on their French.
4. Dolls
Pretend play sessions with dolls can teach little girls and boys all about geography. Wild Photographer Mia is mad about wildlife and always takes her camera with her to snap pretty landscapes and wildlife. Mia is part of the Lottie Doll collection and hopes that her photographs will inspire other children to take care of Planet Earth. Mia is more than just a doll, she comes with a cochlear implant and is dressed in a red jacket, jeans and dotty wellies to help teach kids about diversity, too.
5. Activity Sets
What better way to understand geography than to get up close and personal with nature? Tiger Tribe's Outdoor Activity Set gets kids up and off of the sofa and into the great outdoors. It comes with a magnifying glass, coloured chalks, a pencil and activity book full of exciting hands-on projects. Designed to develop children's observations and interactions with nature.
6. Talk
A simple but effective way for children to learn about the world around them is by having conversations with them. When they eat food from another country or a film in another language, you can explain where they originate from. It builds their vocabulary and geography skills.
7. Explore
Geography can be your local surroundings rather than something far away. Take your child out through the local village, town, city or county to get a better understanding of their local surroundings.