Home Learning Activities with an Atlas – 10 inspiring ideas

Atlases are a great tool for helping children to learn about and explore the world and our TTS Teaching Atlases don’t just contain maps but also facts and activities to help engage children.

Here are 10 home learning activities that use an atlas as an inspiring starting point:

1. The Wonderful World

Look at the maps throughout the atlas, in particular the world maps. See what interesting things you can find out about the world. Create your own world map on large paper and write on everything you learn about the continents and oceans, or create a ‘continent passport’ with a page of facts for each continent. Here are some questions to get you started …

What are the names of the 7 continents? Can you name the 5 oceans? How many countries are there in the world?

2. Read a page a day

Simply try reading a page of the atlas a day. There are so many interesting facts to find out throughout the atlases and there are also questions and challenges to keep minds busy.  By doing this, children can learn about the whole world in an age appropriate and curriculum linked context. What things can you learn that you didn’t know before?

3. ‘Fact a Day’ Journal

Create a ‘Fact a Day’ journal to record one fab fact a day that you learn from reading the atlas. Over time, this will become full of interesting facts about the world. Children can then share their journal with family, friends or take it back into school when they return.

4. Create an A to Z

As you read through the atlas together, try to create an A to Z of all the geographical words you come across. Can you find a word for every letter of the alphabet? You could display this on large paper at home, such as a spare piece of wallpaper (not from the wall of course!). This is a great way for children to learn new key vocabulary, such as equator, continent, tectonic plate and so many more.

5. Glossary

Of course, once you have your A to Z, it can be really helpful to create a glossary or dictionary to explain the meaning of all of these words. Research the words and write a definition that will help others to understand.

6. Create a destination

Use the atlas to find out more about particular regions of the world and the different landscape there, for example the Polar Regions, the desert, jungles or the safari plains.  Choose a location around the world and create a scene in a box, on a tray or in a picture. You could create the Sahara desert with sand or the Arctic with fake snow. Research what animals live there and draw pictures or create models of these. What could you use to make hills or icebergs?

Share your photos of these online because we would love to see them!

7. Create somewhere new

Try creating a new part of the world and make a model or draw a picture of this place. Do you want it to be hot or cold? What animals would live there? Will there be mountains? Think about how the animals or creatures are adapted to living in this place.

8. Create your own atlas

Having looked at the world maps of Earth, design and create your own planet. Decide on the key features of your world such as climates, animals, population, land features etc. Create your own mini atlas to tell others all about your new world. You can model your atlas on the TTS Teaching Atlas and create a page for the different areas of your world.

9. Where are they from?

Ask children to think about a famous person that they know and that inspires them. This could be a sportsperson, a musician, a TV presenter etc. Research and find out where they were born or where they live now and use the atlas to create a fact file about that place. If they have moved around in their life, you could always use the atlas to create a map to show this.

10. TTS Teaching Atlas Activities

On every page of the TTS Teaching Atlases, there are activities or challenges for children to try. Work your way through the atlas and see what interesting activities inspire you!

Here are two examples of pages from the atlas:

A few other ‘Geography Themed Activities’

• Draw an aerial map of your school, home or local area. Try plotting parts of the building and use a key to help others identify those key features.
• Devise a treasure map around your home and use a simple key for others to follow.
• Watch a clip online of a travel programme (an adult will need to check it before watching). Plan, create and record your own travel programme about your local area and share all of the wonderful things about it.