Great Activities for a Globe

(450 Words)
A globe provides many educational activities for children. It can teach geography and social studies and so much more. Find games that are suitable for the age of your kids.
The globe can help very young children work on their letters. For instance, you can ask them to find all of the A’s on the globe. Then they must find the B’s and the C’s and so forth. You can also ask them to look for countries or places that begin with that letter. They can work on their counting skills by counting how many places have that letter in the words.
You can also teach the children about the different places on the globe. For an added twist, spin the globe while the child doesn’t look. Let the child stop it by placing a finger on it. You can then talk about the location where it stops. If the children are very young, then you can tell them about the places. If they are older, then the children can tell you what they know about the place. You can just make it general or you can talk about the special landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty in New York.
You can talk about the different people in the countries of the globe. Talk about the languages spoken as well as the cultures.
Use the globe to talk about shapes. Obviously you can talk about the fact that it is a sphere or, if you were to look at it in a two-dimensional space, a circle. You can ask your child to look for landmarks that are the different shapes. For instance, he or she can try to find lakes that look similar to rectangles, triangles and so forth.
Talk about what the circumference is and have the child measure the globe. You can show how a tiny distance on the globe is a significant distance in real life. He or she can measure to get an idea of how far away different places are. Older children can learn about measuring items that are not straight.
Talk about weather with the globe. Show the child the equator and explain how the weather will be colder as a location is farther away from it. Seeing it with the globe may help the child understand better than just explaining.
The globe is a great tool to teach about natural features such as lakes, peninsulas, mountains and more. Show these on the globe and explain where they are in the different places.
There are many wonderful activities one can do with a globe. Make sure that the activities are suited for the child’s age so that he or she will learn effectively.