HELPING YOUR CHILD LEARN GEOGRAPHY

Foreword 

Remember thumbing through an atlas or encyclopedia as a child, imagining yourself as a world traveler
on a safari in Africa, or boating up the Mississippi River, climbing the peaks of the Himalayas, visiting
ancient cathedrals and castles of Europe, the Great Wall of China? We do. The world seemed full of
faraway, exotic, and wonderful places that we wanted to know more about. 

Today, we would like to believe that youngsters are growing up similarly inquisitive about the world.
Perhaps they are, but recent studies and reports indicate that, if such imaginings are stirring in our
youngsters, they're not being translated into knowledge. Not that there ever was a "golden age" when
all our young and all our citizens were conversant about the peoples and places of the globe. Still, there
is considerable evidence that such knowledge among young Americans has dipped to an alarming low. 

Last year, a nine-nation survey found that one in five young Americans (18- to 24-year-olds) could not
locate the United States on an outline map of the world. Young Americans knew measurably less
geography than Americans 25 years of age and over. Only in the United States did 18- to 24-year-olds
know less than people 55 years old and over; in all eight other nations, young adults knew more than
the older ones. 

No less disturbing was the fact that our young adults, when compared with young adults in other
countries, came in last place in a 1980 Gallup Poll. Our 18- to 24-year-olds knew less about geography
than their age-mates in every other participating nation. But it shouldn't surprise us. Youngsters in other
countries study more geography. In England, Canada, and the Soviet Union, geography is considered
one of the basic academic subjects and is required of most secondary students; in the United States,
only one in seven students takes a high school geography course. 

You'd think that our students learn at least some geography, though, in their world history classes.
Those who take world history probably do. But that's only 44 percent of our high school graduates.
More than half of our high school students are graduating without studying world history. 

If youngsters are to acquire an appreciation of geography and ultimately learn to think geographically,
parents and communities must insist that local schools restore it to prominence in the curriculum. They
should insist that geography be studied and learned, in one form or another, through several years of
the primary and secondary curriculum. 

Learning should not be restricted to the classroom. Parents are a child's first teachers and can do much
to advance a youngster's geographic knowledge. This booklet suggests some ways to do so. 

It is based on a fundamental assumption: that children generally learn what adults around them value.
The significance attached to geography at home or at school can be estimated in a glance at the walls
and bookshelves. 

Simply put, youngsters who grow up around maps and atlases are more likely to get the "map habit"
than youngsters who do not. Where there are maps, atlases, and globes, discussions of world events (at
whatever intellectual level) are more likely to include at least a passing glance at their physical location.
Turning to maps and atlases frequently leads youngsters to fashion, over time, their own "mental maps"
of the world--maps that serve not only to organize in their minds the peoples, places, and things they
see and hear about in the news, but also to suggest why certain events unfold in particular places. 

Helping every child develop his or her ability to use maps and to develop mental maps of the world
ought to become a priority in our homes and schools. For, as we all know, our lives are becoming an
ever tighter weave of interactions with people around the world. If our businesses are to fare well in
tomorrow's world markets, if our national policies are to achieve our aims in the future, and if our
relationships with other peoples are to grow resilient and mutually enriching, our children must grow to
know what in the world is where. 

This booklet is designed to help parents stir children's curiosity and steer that curiosity toward
geographic questions and knowledge. It is organized around the five themes recently set forth by
geographers and geography educators across the Nation--the physical location of a place, the
character of a place, relationships between places, movement of people and things, and phenomena
that cause us to group places into particular regions. 

We encourage parents to get to the fun part--that is, the activities. The games, maps, and suggested
activities that follow, while informal and easy to do, can help lay a solid foundation in experience for
children's later, more academic forays into geography. 

Bruno V. Manno
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Planning 

Kirk Winters
Research Associate 

Office of Educational Research and Improvement U.S. Department of Education 

Introduction 

Children are playing in the sand. They make roads for cars. One builds a castle where a doll can live.
Another scoops out a hole, uses the dirt to make a hill, and pours some water in the hole to make a
lake. Sticks become bridges and trees. The children name the streets, and may even use a watering
can to make rain. 

Although they don't know it, these children are learning the principles of geography. They are locating
things, seeing how people interact with he Earth, manipulating the environment, learning how weather
changes the character of a place, and looking at how places relate to each other through the movement
of things from one place to another. 

With this book, we hope you, as parents, will get ideas for activities that will use your children's play to
informally help them learn more geography--the study of the Earth. 

Most of the suggestions in this book are geared to children under 10 years of age. The activities and
games are organized around five specific themes that help focus our thinking. These themes were
developed by the Joint Committee on Geographic Education of the National Council for Geographic
Education and the American Association of Geographers and are now being used in many schools.
They are: 

   1.Where are things located? 

   2.What makes a place special? 

   3.What are the relationships among people and places? 

   4.What are the patterns of movement of people, products, and information? 

   5.How can the Earth be divided into regions for study? 

These themes have been adopted by many schools in the last few years and may be new to many
parents. To help focus your awareness of the issues, we will begin each chapter with a brief
description of the theme. This description includes examples of questions geographers use as they
strive to understand and define the Earth, for geography provides us with a system for asking questions
about the Earth. 

Location:
Position on the Earth's Surface 

Look at a map. Where are places located? To determine location, geographers use a set of imaginary
lines that crisscross the surface of the globe. Lines designating "latitude" tell us how far north or south
of the equator a place is. Lines designating "longitude" measure distance east and west of the prime
meridian--an imaginary line running between the North Pole and the South Pole through Greenwich,
England. You can use latitude and longitude as you would a simple grid system on a state highway
map. The point where the lines intersect is the "location"--or global address. For example, St. Louis,
Missouri, is roughly at 39ø (degrees) north latitude and 90ø west longitude. 

Why are things located in particular places and how do those places influence our lives? Location
further describes how one place relates to another. St. Louis is where the Mississippi and the Missouri
rivers meet about midway between Minneapolis-St. Paul and New Orleans. It developed as a trading
center between east and west, north and south. 

Directions 

To help young children learn location, make sure they know the color and style of the building in which
they live, the name of their town, and their street address. Then, when you talk about other places, they
have something of their own with which to compare. 

     Children need to understand positional words. Teach children words like "above" and "below" in
     a natural way when you talk with them or give them directions. When picking up toys to put
     away, say, "Please put your toy into the basket on the right" or, "Put the green washcloth into
     the drawer." Right and left are as much directional terms as north, south, east, and west. Other
     words that describe such features as color, size, and shape are also important. 

     Show your children north, south, east, and west by using your home as a reference point.
     Perhaps you can see the sun rising in the morning through a bedroom window that faces east
     and setting at night through the westerly kitchen window: 

     Reinforce their knowledge by playing games. Once children have their directional bearings, you
     can hide an object, for example, then give them directions to its location: "two steps to the north,
     three steps west ...." 

     Use pictures from books and magazines to help your children associate words with visual
     images. A picture of a desert can stimulate conversation about the features of a desert--arid and
     barren. Work with your children to develop more complex descriptions of different natural and
     cultural features. 

Maps 

Put your child's natural curiosity to work. Even small children can learn to read simple maps of their
school, neighborhood, and community. Here are some simple map activities you can do with your
children. 

     Go on a walk and collect natural materials such as acorns and leaves to use for an art project.
     Map the location where you found those items. 

     Create a treasure map for children to find hidden treats in the back yard or inside your home.
     Treasure maps work especially well for birthday parties. 

     Look for your city or town on a map. If you live in a large city or town, you may even be able to
     find your street. Point out where your relatives or your children's best friends live. 

     Find the nearest park, lake, mountain, or other cultural or physical feature on a map. Then, talk
     about how these features affect your child's life. Living near the ocean may make your climate
     moderate, prairies may provide an open path for high winds, and mountains may block some
     weather fronts. 

     By looking at a map, your children may learn why they go to a particular school. Perhaps the
     next nearest school is on the other side of a park, a busy street, or a large hill. Maps teach us
     about our surroundings by portraying them in relation to other places. 

     Before taking a trip, show your children a map of where you are going and how you plan to get
     there. Look for other ways you could go, and talk about why you decided to use a particular
     route. Maybe they can suggest other routes. 

     Encourage your children to make their own maps using legends with symbols. Older children
     can draw a layout of their street, or they can illustrate places or journeys they have read about.
     Some books, like Winnie-the-Pooh and The Wizard of Oz, contain fanciful maps. These can be
     models for children to create and plot their own stories. 

     Keep a globe and a map of the United States near the television and use them to locate places
     talked about on television programs, or to follow the travels of your favorite sports team. 

Additional Activities 

Children use all of their senses to learn about the world. Objects that they can touch, see, smell, taste,
and hear help them understand the link between a model and the real thing. 

     Put together puzzles of the United States or the world. Through the placement of the puzzle
     pieces, children gain a tactile and visual sense of where one place is located in relation to others.

     Make a three-dimensional map of your home or neighborhood using milk cartons for buildings.
     Draw a map of the block on a piece of cardboard, then cut up the cartons (or any other
     three-dimensional item) and use them to represent buildings. Use bottle tops or smaller boxes to
     add interest to the map, but try to keep the scale relationships correct. 

     Use popular board games like "Game of the States" or "Trip Around the World" to teach your
     children about location, commerce, transportation, and the relationships, among different
     countries and areas of the world. Some of these games are available at public libraries. 

     Make paper-mache using strips of old newspaper and a paste made from flour and water. If
     children form balls by wrapping the strips of paper-mache around a balloon, they will develop a
     realistic understanding of the difficulties in making accurate globes. They can also use
     paper-mache to make models of hills and valleys. 

Place:
Physical and Human Characteristics 

Every place has a personality. What makes a place special? What are the physical and cultural
characteristics of your hometown? Is the soil sandy or rocky? Is the temperature warm or is it cold? If
it has many characteristics, which are the most distinct? 

How do these characteristics affect the people living there? People change the character of a place.
They speak a particular language, have styles of government and architecture, and form patterns of
business. How have people shaped the landscapes? 

Investigate Your Neighborhood 

     Walk around your neighborhood and look at what makes it unique. Point out differences from
     and similarities to other places. Can your children distinguish various types of homes and shops?
     Look at the buildings and talk about their uses. Are there features built to conform with the
     weather or topography? Do the shapes of some buildings indicate how they were used in the
     past or how they're used now? These observations help children understand the character of a
     place. 

     Show your children the historical, recreational, or natural points of interest in your town. What
     animals and plants live in your neighborhood? If you live near a harbor, pay it a visit, and tour a
     docked boat. You can even look up the shipping schedule in your local newspaper. If you live
     near a national park, a lake, a river, or a stream, take your children there and spend time talking
     about its uses. 

     Use songs to teach geography. "Home on the Range," "Red River Valley," and "This Land Is
     Your Land" conjure up images of place. Children enjoy folk songs of different countries like
     "Sur La Pont D'Avignon, .... Guantanamara," and "London Bridge." When your children sing
     these songs, talk with them about the places they celebrate, locate them on the map, and discuss
     how the places are described. 

Study the Weather 

Weather has important geographic implications that affect the character of a place. The amount of sun
or rain, heat or cold, the direction and strength of the wind, all determine such things as how people
dress, how well crops grow, and the extent to which people will want to live in a particular spot. 

     Watch the weather forecast on television or read the weather map in the newspaper. Save the
     maps for a month or more. You can see changes over time, and compare conditions over
     several weeks and seasons. Reading the weather map helps children observe changes in the
     local climate. 

     Use a weather map to look up the temperatures of cities around the world and discover how hot
     each gets in the summer and how cold each gets in the winter. Ask your children if they can
     think of reasons why different locations have different temperatures. Compare these figures
     with your town. Some children enjoy finding the place that is the hottest or the coldest. 

     Make simple weather-related devices such as barometers, pinwheels, weather vanes, and wind
     chimes. Watch cloud formations and make weather forecasts. Talk about how these describe
     the weather in your town. 

Learn About Other Cultures 

People shape the personality of their areas. The beliefs, languages, and customs distinguish one place
from another. 

     Make different ethnic foods, take your children to an ethnic restaurant, or treat them to ethnic
     snacks at a folk festival. Such an experience is an opportunity to talk about why people eat
     different foods. What ingredients in ethnic dishes are unique to a particular area? For example,
     why do the Japanese eat so much seafood? (If your children look for Japan on a map they will
     realize it is a country of many islands.) 

     Read stories from or about other countries, and books that describe journeys. Many children's
     books provide colorful images of different places and a sense of what it would be like to live in
     them. Drawings or photographs of distant places or situations can arouse interest in other lands.
     The Little House in the Big Woods, Holiday Tales of Sholem Aleichem, and The Polar Express
     are examples of books with descriptions of place that have transported the imaginations of many
     young readers. There is a bibliography at the end of this booklet, and your librarian will have
     more suggestions. 

Weather Vane 

Materials: wire hanger, small plastic container, aluminum foil, sand or dirt, tape or glue, scissors,
crayon. 

Directions: 

   1.Straighten out the hanger's hook and cover half of the triangle part of the hanger with foil. Fold
     the edges, and tape or glue in place. 

   2.Fill the container with sand or loose dirt, put on the lid, and mark it N, S, E, and W. Poke the
     hanger through the center of the lid. The hanger should touch the bottom of the container and
     turn freely in the hole. 

   3.Put the container outside with the N facing north. When the wind blows, take a look at your
     weather vane. The open half of the vane shows the direction from which the wind is coming. 

Reprinted from Sesame Street Magazine Parent's Guide, June 1986. Copyright Children's Television
Workshop. 

Relationships within Places:
Humans and Environments 

How do people adjust to their environment? What are the relationships among people and places? How
do they change it to better suit their needs? Geographers examine where people live, why they settled
there, and how they use natural resources. For example, Hudson Bay, the site of the first European
settlement in Canada, is an area rich in wildlife and has sustained a trading and fur trapping industry for
hundreds of years. Yet the climate there was described by early settlers as "nine months of ice
followed by three months of mosquitoes." People can and do adapt to their natural surroundings. 

Notice How You Control Your Surroundings 

Everyone controls his or her surroundings. Look at the way you arrange furniture in your home. You
place the tables and chairs in places that suit the shape of the room and the position of the windows
and doors. You also arrange the room according to how people will use it. 

     Try different furniture arrangements with your children. If moving real furniture is too strenuous,
     try working with doll house furniture or paper cutouts. By cutting out paper to represent
     different pieces of furniture, children can begin to learn the mapmaker's skill in representing the
     three-dimensional real world. 

     Ask your children to consider what the yard might look like if you did not try to change it by
     mowing grass, raking leaves or planting shrubs or trees. You might add a window box if you
     don't have a yard. What would happen if you didn't water the plants? 

     Walk your children around your neighborhood or a park area and have them clean up litter. How
     to dispose of waste is a problem with a geographic dimension. 

     Take your children to see some examples of how people have shaped their environment: bonsai
     gardens, reservoirs, terracing, or houses built into hills. Be sure to talk with them about how and
     why these phenomena came to be. 

     If you don't live on a farm, try to visit one. Many cities and States maintain farm parks for just
     this purpose. Call the division of parks in your area to find out where there is one near you.
     Farmers use soil, water, and sun to grow crops. They use ponds or streams for water, and build
     fences to keep animals from running away. 

Notice How You Adapt to Your Surroundings 

People don't always change their environment. Sometimes they are shaped by it. Often people must
build roads around mountains. They must build bridges over rivers. They construct storm walls to keep
the ocean from sweeping over beaches. In some countries, people near coasts build their houses on
stilts to protect them from storm tides or periodic floods. 

     Go camping. It is easy to understand why we wear long pants and shoes when there are rocks
     and brambles on the ground, and to realize the importance to early settlers of being near water
     when you no longer have the convenience of a faucet. 

     If you go to a park, try to attend the nature shows that many parks provide. You and your
     children may learn about the local plants and wildlife and how the natural features have changed
     over time. 

Movement:
People Interacting on the Earth 

People are scattered unevenly over the Earth. How do they get from one place to another? What are
the patterns of movement of people, products, and information ? Regardless of where we live, we rely
upon each other for goods, services, and information. In fact, most people interact with other places
almost every day. We depend on other places for the food, clothes, and even items like the pencil and
paper our children use in school. We also share information with each other using telephones,
newspapers, radio, and television to bridge the distances. 

Travel in Different Ways 

     Give your children opportunities to travel by car, bus, bicycle, or on foot. Where you can, take
     other forms of transportation such as airplanes, trains, subways, ferries, barges, and horses and
     carriages. 

     Use a map to look at various routes you can take when you try different methods of
     transportation. 

     Watch travel programs on television. 

Follow the Movement of People and Things 

     Play the license plate game. How many different States' plates can you identify, and what, if
     anything, does the license plate tell you about each State? You don't have to be in a car to play.
     You can look at the license plates of parked cars, or those traveling by when you are walking.
     Children can keep a record of the States whose plates they have seen. They can color in those
     States on a map and illustrate them with characteristics described on the license plates. Some
     States have county names on their plates. If you live in one of these States, keeping track of the
     counties could be another interesting variation. 

     Go around your house and look at where everything comes from. Examine the labels of the
     clothes you wear and think of where your food comes from. Why do bananas come from
     Central America? Why does the milk come from the local dairy? Perhaps your climate is too
     cold for bananas, and the milk is too perishable to travel far. How did the food get to your
     house? 

     Tell your children where your ancestors came from. Find your family's countries of origin, and
     chart the birthplaces of relatives on a map. You can plot the routes they followed before they
     arrived at their present location. Why did they leave their previous home? Where do all your
     relatives live now? 

     Have your children ask older relatives what their world was like when they were young. They
     can ask questions about transportation, heating and refrigeration, the foods they ate, the clothes
     they wore, and the schools they attended. Look at old pictures. How have things changed since
     Grandma was a child? Grandparents and great aunts and uncles are usually delighted to share
     their memories with the younger generation, and they can pass on a wealth of information. 

Follow the Movement of Ideas and Information 

Ideas come from beyond our immediate surroundings. How do they get to us? Consider communication
by telephone and mail, television, radio, telegrams, telefax, and even graffiti, posters, bumper stickers,
and promotional buttons. They all convey information from one person or place to another. 

     By watching television and listening to the radio, your children will receive ideas from the
     outside world. Where dothe television shows they watch originate? What aboutradio shows? 

     Ask your children how they would communicate with other people. Would they use the phone or
     write a letter? Encourage them to write letters to relatives and friends. They may be able to get
     pen pals through school or a pen pal association. (Please see the listing in the back of this
     booklet.) 

Regions:
How They Form and Change 

How can places be described or compared? How can the Earth be divided into regions for study?
Geographers categorize regions in two basic ways--physical and cultural. Physical regions are defined
by landform (continents and mountain ranges), climate, soil, and natural vegetation. Cultural regions are
distinguished by political, economic, religious, linguistic, agricultural, and industrial characteristics. 

Examine Physical Regions 

     Help your children understand physical regions by examining areas in your home. Is there an
     upstairs and a downstairs? Is there an eating area and a sleeping area? Are there other
     "regions" in your home that can be described? 

     Look at the physical regions in your community. Some neighborhoods grew up around hills,
     others developed on waterfronts or around parks. What physical regions exist in your
     hometown? 

Examine Cultural Regions 

     Take your children to visit the different political, residential, recreational, ethnic, and commercial
     regions of your city. 

     Go to plays, movies, and puppet shows about people from different countries. These are often
     presented at libraries and museums. 

     Give children geography lessons by tying in with ethnic holiday themes. Provide children with
     regional or ethnic clothes to wear. Some museums and libraries provide clothes children can
     borrow. Holidays provide an opportunity to learn about the customs of people around the world.
     You can use the library to discover how other people celebrate special days. 

     Compare coins and stamps from other lands. They often contain information about the country.
     You may be able to find stamps from other countries where you work, or your children may get
     them from pen pals. Stamps tell many different kinds of things about a country, from its political
     leadership to native bird life. 

     Learn simple words in different languages. Teach your children to count to 10 in other
     languages. They can also learn simple words like "hello, .... goodbye," and "thank you." Look at
     the different alphabets or script from various regions. All these activities expose children to the
     abundance of the Earth's cultural treasures. Many libraries have language tapes and books,
     some especially for children. 

     If you have friends who are from different countries or have either travelled or lived abroad,
     invite them over to talk with your children. If they have pictures, so much the better. What
     languages do they speak? How are their customs or dress similar to or different from yours? 

Conclusion 

Geography is a way of thinking, of asking questions, of observing and appreciating the world around us.
You can help your children learn by providing interesting activities for them, and by prompting them to
ask questions about their surroundings. 

Set a good example, and help your children build precise mental images, by always using correct terms.
Say, "We are going north to New York to visit Grandma, or west to Dallas to see Uncle John," rather
than "up to New York" or "down to Dallas." Use words such as highway, desert, river, climate, and
glacier; and explain concepts like city, State, and continent. 

Many of the words used in geography are everyday words. But, like any other field of learning,
geography has a language of its own. (A glossary of basic geography terms appears in the back of this
booklet.) 

Expose children to lots of maps and let them see you using them. Get a good atlas as well as a
dictionary. Atlases help us ask, and answer, questions about places and their relationships with other
areas. Many States have atlases that are generally available through an agency of the state
government. 

The activities suggested in this booklet are only a few examples of the many ways that children learn
geography. These activities are designed to help parents find ways to include geographic thinking in
their children's early experiences. We hope they will stimulate your thinking and that you will develop
many more activities on your own. 

References 

Backler, Alan; and Stoltman, Joseph. "The Nature of Geographic Literacy." ERIC Digest (no. 35).
Bloomington, IN. 1986. 

Blaga, Jeffrey J.; and others. Geographic Review of Our World: A Daily Five-Minute Geography
Program for Grades 3-11. GROW Publications. Racine, WI. 1987. 

Duea, Joan; and others. Maps and Globes: An Instructional Unit for Elementary Grades. University of
Northern Iowa. Cedar Falls, IA. 1985. 

Geographic Education National Implementation Project. Walter G. Kernball (chair). K-6 Geography:
Themes, Key Ideas, and Learning Opportunities. National Council for Geographic Education. 

Western Illinois University. Macomb, IL. 1984. 

Department of Education and Science. Geography from 5 to 16. HMSO Books. London. 1986. 

Hoehn, Ann. "Helping Children Get Their Hands on Geography" (unpublished activity guide). Milaca
Public Schools. Milaca, MN. 1988. 

Joint Committee on Geographic Education. Guidelines for Geographic Education, Elementary and
Secondary Schools. Association of American Geographers and National Council for Geographic
Education. Washington, DC. 1984. 

National Council for the Social Studies. Strengthening Geography in the Social Studies, Bulletin 81.
Salvatore J. Natoli (editor). Washington, DC. 1988. 

National Geographic Society. Geography: An International Gallup Survey. The Gallup Organization,
Inc. Princeton, NJ. 1988. 

National Geographic Society. "Geography: Making Sense of Where We Are." Geographic Education
Program. Washington, DC. 1988. 

National Geographic Society. Geography Education Program. "Teaching Geography: A Model for
Action." Washington, DC. 1988. 

Wilson-Jones, Ruth Anne. "Geography and Young Children: Help Give them the World" (unpublished
paper). LaGrange, GA. 1988. 

Glossary 

altitude 

Distance above sea level. 

atlas 

A bound collection of maps. 

archipelago 

A group of islands or a sea studded with islands. 

bay 

A wide area of water extending into land from a sea or lake. 

boundaries 

Lines indicating the limits of countries, States, or other political jurisdictions. 

canal 

A man-made watercourse designed to carry goods or water. 

canyon 

A large but narrow gorge with steep sides. 

cape (or point) 

A piece of land extending into water. 

cartographer 

A person who draws or makes maps or charts. 

continent 

One of the large, continuous areas of the Earth into which the land surface is divided. 

degree 

A unit of angular measure. A circle is divided into 360 degrees, represented by the symbol *. Degrees,
when applied to the roughly spherical shape of the Earth for geographic and cartographic purposes, are
each divided into 60 minutes, represented by the symbol '. 

delta 

The fan-shaped area at the mouth, or lower end, of a river, formed by eroded material that has been
carried downstream and dropped in quantities larger than can be carried off by tides or currents. 

desert 

A land area so dry that little or no plant life can survive. 

elevation 

The altitude of an object, such as a celestial body, above the horizon; or the raising of a portion of the
Earth's crust relative to its surroundings, as in a mountain range. 

equator 

An imaginary circle around the Earth halfway between the North Pole and the South Pole; the largest
circumference of the Earth. 

glacier 

A large body of ice that moves slowly down a mountainside from highlands toward sea level. 

gulf 

A large arm of an ocean or sea extending into a land mass. 

hemisphere 

Half of the Earth, usually conceived as resulting from the division of the globe into two equal parts,
north and south or east and west. 

ice shelf 

A thick mass of ice extending from a polar shore. The seaward edge is afloat and sometimes extends
hundreds of miles out to sea. 

international date line 

An imaginary line of longitude generally 180ø east or west of the prime meridian. The date becomes
one day earlier to the east of the line. 

island 

An area of land, smaller than a continent, completely surrounded by water. 

isthmus 

A narrow strip of land located between two bodies of water, connecting two larger land areas. 

lagoon 

A shallow area of water separated from the ocean by a sandbank or by a strip of low land. 

lake 

A body of fresh or salt water entirely surrounded by land. 

latitude 

The angular distance north or south of the equator, measured in degrees. 

legend 

A listing which contains symbols and other information about a map. 

longitude 

The angular distance east or west of the prime meridian, measured in degrees. 

mountain 

A high point of land rising steeply above its surroundings. 

oasis 

A spot in a desert made fertile by water. 

ocean 

The salt water surrounding the great land masses, and divided by the land masses into several distinct
portions, each of which is called an ocean. 

peak 

The highest point of a mountain. 

peninsula 

A piece of land extending into the sea almost surrounded by water. 

plain 

A large area of land, either level or gently rolling, usually at low elevation. 

plateau (or tableland) 

An elevated area of mostly level land, sometimes containing deep canyons. 

physical feature 

A land shape formed by nature. 

population 

The number of people inhabiting a place. 

prime meridian 

An imaginary line running from north to south through Greenwich, England, used as the reference point
for longitude. range (or mountain range) A group or chain of high elevations. 

reef 

A chain of rocks, often coral, lying near the water surface. 

reservoir 

A man-made lake where water is kept for future use. 

river 

A stream, larger than a creek, generally flowing to another stream, a lake, or to the ocean. 

scale 

The relationship of the length between two points as shown on a map and the distance between the
same two points on the Earth. 

sea level 

The ocean surface; the mean level between high and low tides. 

strait 

A narrow body of water connecting two larger bodies of water. 

swamp 

A tract of permanently saturated low land, usually overgrown with vegetation. (A marsh is temporarily
or periodically saturated.) 

topography 

The physical features of a place; or the study and depiction of physical features, including terrain relief.

valley 

A relatively long, narrow land area lying between two areas of higher elevation, often containing a
stream. 

volcano 

A vent in the Earth's crust caused by molten rock coming to the surface and being ejected, sometimes
violently. 

waterfall 

A sudden drop of a stream from a high level to a much lower level. 

Glossary, in part, courtesy of Hammond, Incorporated 

Free or Inexpensive Materials 

Maps 

The following places often provide free maps, although you will probably have to go in person or send a
self-addressed stamped envelope in order to receive one: 

     State tourist agencies and local chambers of commerce publish walking tour maps or guidebooks
     to area attractions. 

     Local government offices, especially those dealing with public transportation, often provide free
     road maps. 

     Car rental companies. The Federal Government has hundreds of maps available. For a
     comprehensive listing, contact the Government Printing Office (GPO) bookstore in your area or
     the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402. The
     GPO handles the printing and sales of items produced by government agencies. Some examples
     of what you might find there, or directly through the developing agency, include: 

     Schematic maps with historical data and park activities of the areas under the care of the U.S.
     National Park Service. Contact the particular site, or write to the Department of the Interior,
     U.S. National Park Service, P.O. Box 7427, Washington, DC 20013-7127. 

     Maps from the U.S. Geological Survey, the civilian mapmaking agency of the United States
     Government, covering a range of areas including National Wildlife Refuges to LANDSAT
     pictures of the Earth. For a catalog, write to the Earth Science Information Center, U.S.
     Geological Survey, 507 National Center, Reston, VA 22092. 

     A map of the United States showing the U.S. Wildlife Refuges. Write to the U.S. Fish and
     Wildlife Service, Division of Refuge, 18th and C Streets NW, Washington, DC 20204. 

     Maps of water recreation areas, from the Army Corps of Engineers. Write to Department of
     the Army, Corps of Engineers, 2803 52nd Avenue, Hyattsville, MD 20781-1102. 

     A wide selection of material is available from the National Aeronautics and Space
     Administration (NASA), 400 Maryland Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20546. Of particular
     interest are NASA Facts--Planet Earth Through the Eyes of LANDSAT 4 and Earth System
     Science. For a full list, ask for a copy of NASA Educational Publications. 

Another source is The Map Catalog (Joel Makower, editor, and Laura Bergheim, associate editor),
published in 1986 by Vintage Books of Random House. It is probably at your public library. 

Magazines 

Look for these magazines in your school or library: 

     Discover produced by Family Media, Incorporated; 

     World, published by the National Geographic Society; and 

     Ranger Rick and Your Big Backyard, published by the National Wildlife Federation. 

Pen Pal
Organizations 

League of Friendship
P.O. Box 509
Mt. Vernon, OH 43050
(6 14)392-3 166 

Books 

Easy Reading and Picture Books: 

Anderson, Lonzo. Day the Hurricane Happened. Story of what a family does when a hurricane rips
through their island. 

Bach, Alice. Most Delicious Camping Trip Ever. Exploits of twin bears on a camping trip. 

Balet, Jan. Fence, A Mexican Tale. Illustrations help tell the story of two Mexican families. 

Beskow, Elsa. Children of the Forest. A family of Tomten (small forest people) work and play through
the four seasons in their Nordic home. 

Brenner, Barbara. Barto Takes the Subway. Barto lives in New York City. He and his sister take a
trip on the subway. 

Brenner, Barbara. Wagon Wheels. Three young black brothers follow a map to their father's
homestead on the Western plains. 

Brinckloe, Julie. Gordon Goes Camping. When Gordon decides to go camping, his friend Marvin tells
him of all the things he will need for the trip. 

Buck, Pearl S. Chinese Children Next Door. A mother who had spent her childhood in China tells her
children about her neighbors there. 

Burningham, John. Seasons. A series of pictures that define the four seasons. 

Burton, Virginia Lee. Little House. A country house is unhappy when the city with all its houses and
traffic grows up around it. 

Chonz, Selina. Bell for Ursli. A boy who lives in a tiny village in the mountains of Switzerland has an
adventure when the spring festival comes. 

Cooney, Barbara. Miss Rumphius. One woman's personal odyssey through life to fulfill her
grandfather's wish that she make the world more beautiful. 

Devlin, Wende and Harry. Cranberry Thanksgiving; Cranberry Christmas; Cranberry Mystery. A
series of mystery-adventure tales set on the cranberry bog shore of Cape Cod. 

Dobrin, Arnold. Josephine's Imagination; A Tale of Haiti. Story of a young girl and her adventures in
the Haitian market. 

Eiseman, Alberta. Candido. Paco, a Peruvian boy, loves his pet llama but knows that he must find a
way to train the animal to work as other llamas do. 

Ets, Marie Hall. Gilberto and the Wind. A very little boy from Mexico finds that the wind is his
playmate. 

Feelings, Muriel L. Jambo Means Hello. A Swahili alphabet book. 

Frasconi, Antonio. See and Say, Guarda e Parla, Mira y Habla, Regard et Parle. A picture book that
gives words from four languages and prints each in a special color. Has a page of everyday
expressions as well. 

Garelic, May. Down to the Beach. Boats, birds, shells, sand, waves, tides and all the fun and wonder of
the beach are pictured in simple, rhythmic prose and beautiful watercolors. 

Goble, Paul. The Gift of the Sacred Dog and The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses. These stories,
accompanied by beautiful pictures, are based on legends of the Native Americans. 

Green, Norma B. Hole in the Dike. Retells the familiar story of the young Dutch boy whose
resourcefulness, courage and finger save his country from being destroyed by the sea. 

Hader, Berta. Reindeer Trail. The generous Laplanders bring their herds of reindeer all the way from
Lapland to Alaska to help hungry Eskimos. 

Hoban, Tana. Over, Under & Through, and Other Spatial Concepts. A picture book on spatial
concepts. 

Holling, Holling C. Paddle-to-the-Sea. Describes the journey of a toy canoe from the Great Lakes to
the Atlantic Ocean. 

Kessler, Ethel. Big Red Bus. An illustrated bus ride for the very beginning reader. 

Krasilovsky, Phyllis. The First Tulips in Holland. Beautiful drawings about spring in Holland. 

Kraus, Robert. Gondolier of Venice. The city of Venice is sinking into the sea, but Gregory, a proud
gondolier, gets a clever and unusual idea to help the old city. 

Lamont, Bette. Island Time. A parent and child board the ferry that takes them to their very special
island on Puget Sound. 

Lisowski, Gabriel. How Tevye Became a Milkman. Short tale, with illustrations of the Ukrainian
countryside, based on the character also depicted in Fiddler on the Roof. 

McCloskey, Robert. Blueberries for Sal. Make Way for Ducklings. One Morning in Maine. Favorites
from an award winning children's book author. Each describes a special journey and the difficulties in
getting from one place to another. 

Mizumura, Kazue. If I Built a Village. An idealistic picture of what a village, town and city can be ends
with a small boy building with blocks. 

Morrow, Suzanne Stark. Inatuk's Friend. Story of an Eskimo child who must move from one place to
another. 

Musgrove, Margaret. Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions. Read and observe 26 African tribes from A
to Z. 

Peterson, Hans. Big Snowstorm. Illustrations and text picture events on a Swedish farm during a
raging, January blizzard. 

Rockwell, Anne. Thruway. As a small boy rides along a thruway with his mother, he tells of all the
things he sees. 

Shortall, Leonard. Peter in Grand Central Station. Peter takes his first trip alone, but when he gets to
New York, his uncle is not there to meet him. 

Skorpen, Liesel Moak. We Were Tired of Living in a House. Four small children pack their bags and
leave home to find a new and better house. 

Spier, Peter. People. Explores the enormous diversity of the world's population. Looks at various
cultures, homes, foods, games, clothing, faces, and religions. 

Van Woerkom, Dorothy. Abu Ali: Three Tales of the Middle East. Abu Ali is fooled by his friends,
tricks them in turn and even fools himself in three humorous stories of trickery based on folklore of the
Middle East. 

Books to Read Aloud or for Better Readers: 

Brink, Carol Ryrie. Caddie Woodlawn. These stories convey the flavor of pioneer life through the eyes
of a little girl who lived in Wisconsin a century ago. 

Bulla, Clyde Robert. A Lion to Guard Us. This is a story of the founding fathers of the Jamestown
colony and the families they left behind in England. 

DeJong, Meindert. Wheel on the School. Children of Shora, a Netherlands village, are determined to
bring storks back to their town. 

Dodge, Mary Mapes. Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates. Poor Dutch children long to compete in a
skating contest. 

DuBois, William Pene. The Twenty-one Balloons. In the fall of 1883, Professor William Waterbury
Sherman sets forth from San Francisco on a balloon expedition around the world. 

Hansen, Judith. Seashells in My Pocket: A Child's Guide to Exploring the Atlantic Coast from Maine to
North Carolina. A look at seashells on Atlantic Coast beaches. 

Henry, Marguerite. Misty of Chincoteague. A story of the wild ponies that live on an island off the
eastern shore of Virginia, and of one freedom-loving pony. 

Kelly, Eric. The Trumpeter of Krakow. Mystery story centering around an attack on the ancient city of
Krakow in medieval Poland. 

Milne. A.A. The House at Pooh Corner; Winnie-the-Pooh. Christopher Robin and his friends have
adventures and tell stories. 

Mowat, Farley. Owls in the family. This is a story of the author's boyhood on the Saskatchewan
prairie, raising dogs, gophers, rats, snakes, pigeons, and owls. 

McNulty, Faith. Hurricane. This is a nature story that takes place when a family struggles against a
hurricane. 

Spyri, Johanna. Heidi. Story of a young girl who goes to live with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps.
She is then taken by her aunt to live in the city and struggles to return to her grandfather. 

Steig, William. Abel's Island. A mouse lives for a year in the wilderness until his wit and courage take
him back home. 

Wilder, Laura Ingalls. The Little House series. Documents the life of the author and her husband a
century ago. 

Wyss, Johann. Swiss Family Robinson. The adventures of a Swiss family shipwrecked on a desert
island. 

Atlases and other reference guides for young people: 

Big Blue Marble Atlas. Paula Brown and Robert Garrison. Ideals Publishing group. Milwaukee. 1988. 

Discovering Maps: A Young Person's Atlas. Hammond Incorporated. Maplewood, N.J. 1989. 

Doubleday Children's Atlas. Jane Oliver, editor. Doubleday. New York. 1987. 

Facts on File Children's Atlas. David and Jill Wright. Facts on File Publications. New York. 1987. 

Life Through the Ages. Giovanni Caselli. Grossett and Dunlop. New York. 1987. 

Picture Atlas of Our World. National Geographic Society. Washington, D.C. 1979. 

Picture Encyclopedia of the World for Children. Bryon Williams and Lynn Williamson. Simon and
Schuster. New York. 1984. 

Rand McNally Children's Atlas of the World. Bruce Ogilvie. Rand McNally and Co., Inc. Chicago.
1985. 

Rand McNally Student's World Atlas. Rand McNally and Co. Chicago. 1988. 

Usborne Book of World Geography. Jenny Tyler, Lisa Watts, Carol Bowyer, Roma Trundle and
Annabel Warrender. Usborne Publishing, Ltd. London. 1984. 

Acknowledgments 

This project could not have been completed if it were not for the help of many dedicated people.
Thanks to those who shared their ideas and materials on geography and early childhood--Mark
Bockenhauer of the National Geographic Society, teachers Ann Hoehn, Judy Ludovise, and Ruth Anne
Wilson-Jones, and Salvatore Natoli of the National Council for the Social Studies. Thanks to the same
group for reviewing the final document and to Pat Bonner of the Consumer Information Center, Robert
Burch and technical staff of Hammond, Incorporated, and George Zech of the Duncan Oklahoma
Schools. 

Thanks to the National Mapping Division of the United States Geological Survey for becoming involved
in the development of this document and for making it available to a broader audience. In addition,
thanks to Ann Chaparos for the cover design and help on the layout. 

Last, but not least, thanks to the staff of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement for
helping make the draft into a booklet--Cynthia Dorfman, Kate Dorrell, Lance Ferderer, Mark
Travaglini, Tim Burr, and Phil Carr. 

City maps, time zone map, and mileage chart courtesy of Hammond Incorporated, Maplewood, NJ.