Here are two games my kids like to play:
http://www.scholastic.com/census/glo...029/census_TNL (this is the easier one) and
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/G...hyGames/Geospy. Here's another fun one:
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/G...yGames/Copycat.
I think it would be fun to map books, but we haven't done it yet. I can imagine doing a big map for a book like
Scuffy the Tugboat. There is a great map on the endpapers of
The Great Gracie Chase by Mark Teague that could be drawn from the story, or just discussed.
We have mapped out journeys of nonfiction books, like Christopher Columbus biographies and now Charles Darwin. We liked the
Animals __________ Saw books,
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_1_...x=Animals+Chri
. We also read
How to Bake an Apple Pie and See the World, and baked a pie from apples we picked - I figured out where all of our specific ingredients came from and we mapped that. Also have mapped other family members' trips - to Great Britain, to New Zealand and used their itineraries and postcards for inspiration. Basically I incorporate maps whenever possible since the kids are so interested - when we studied coral reefs, we located those on the map and labelled them, when we did Cinderalla stories around the world we located those on the map and labelled them etc.!
Two of my favorite map books are
Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney and
Mapping Penny's World by Loreen Leedy.
My kids have both always loved poring over our state's Gazetteer, to the point that we eventually got a "house" copy just for them. I always get two maps for amusement parks and state parks/trail maps when we go too because they love poring over them later.
I read somewhere about making a scavenger hunt using map directions (start at the big tree with the swing; go 4 steps W etc.) but again we haven't done that yet. Sounds like fun though!
Just thought of one more thing to add - games... The game Camp has some map stuff, about states. We played Game of the States as kids and will be getting it for my kids for Christmas. My daughter liked playing Great States as part of a local geography class. They also love doing the world/US map puzzles like this one
http://www.amazon.com/Large-Wooden-C...8138612&sr=1-1 and the 100 piece puzzle ball globe - I think it has 100 pieces. That was a Christmas present last year.
So many fun things!
TIA!
