Teaching The Hudson Valley

9 Geography Awareness Week Ideas

Posted by Debi Duke
on November 15, 2011

That's right. It's Geography Awareness Week.

Here are some quick activities including materials and sometimes video clips and other resources.

1. The Mannahatta Project's unit is all about geography with 14 lessons for all ages.

2. Our Wet Schoolyard: Mapping Puddles, from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, takes students outside for a fun and practical activity.

NYS DEC's Hudson River Estuary Program shares three activities for elementary students:

3. Study the New York State Amphibian and Reptile Atlas in Mapping Where Animals Live.

4. Learn where species nest and how their distributions have changed over time in These Maps Are For the Birds.

5. Use a relief map to answer questions about distance, direction, and natural features along the Hudson in Rivers Run Through It.

6. Secondary social studies units Diversity & Tolerance in the American Colonies and Diversity in New Netherland, feature "Mapping the Way We Were," "Mapping Diversity in Old and New Netherland," and "Mapping New York Place Names."

7. In "A Good Place for Settlement" and "Land Rights and Conflict" middle schoolers analyze settlement patterns and human interactions. History of the Hudson River: Cultures and Landscapes is from National Geographic.

8. Crossing the Atlantic: Then and Now guides first and second graders in using maps to compare and contrast transatlantic travel during Colonial times and today. From National Geographic.

9. And, finally, we love If the World Were a Village... from geographer Matt Rosenberg. This activity asks students to gather information about their own community and then compare it to what the world's "average" community looks like.

Have your own suggestions? Post quick ideas on THV's Facebook page or add your entire plan to the free library on our website.

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