This month a group of Multicultural Kid Bloggers have got together to create an A-Z of raising global citizens. I’ve always found maps really fascinating to study, and remember spending hours leafing through my Weetabix Atlas as a child (anyone else remember that book from the 90s? It was the best!)
So naturally I opted to take M for Maps, and have put together a series of maps printables for children to colour and label.
Looking at maps is a great way for children to visualise their place in the world, and to understand where countries are in relation to each other. When travelling it’s really useful to show a world or continent map to the children and let them see the distance they will be travelling. Recently we have been travelling within Europe with the children so they have been looking at maps of France and Spain.
Z noticed that since Spain is much bigger than the UK, when you see a distance of a few centimetres on a map of Spain, it can take much longer to drive there than it would for the same distance on a map of the UK, which is a first step to understanding scale on a map and how that works in practice.
The map printables I’m sharing today are outline maps focusing on the shape and location of each country, but it’s also interesting to look at terrain maps with children and let them see the mountains, deserts, lakes and other features of different countries. I will share a few recommendations for atlases and map books to share with children at the end of the post.
World Map colouring and continent labelling page
Countries of Europe colouring and labelling page
Labelling France Page
Outline Maps for 7 Countries
Atlases and Resources about Maps
Click the country link next to each title to see and buy on Amazon (affiliate)