The Most Fun, Interactive World Map Game for Kids

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Yes, I did have a big pet peeve when I taught fourth and fifth grade — lack of basic world geography knowledge. In fact, it irritated me so much if my students didn’t know the 7 continents and 5 oceans that I wouldn’t let them go out to recess until they got 100% on a quiz. They could take it as many times as they wanted but as far as I was concerned, there was no excuse for not knowing that information, spelled correctly with capital letters, by fifth grade!

So when my kids were little, I found the best game to reinforce world geography — the full-body, interactive Map Tangle, it’s one of our favorite games. One hand on the Caribbean Sea and a foot on Japan makes my kids stretch both their minds and bodies. UPDATE: About 100 Map Tangle games were recalled in 2004 and currently it’s not available. However, I’ll give you some similar games for alternatives.

Alternative Game: World Treasure Hunt Map – Floor Vinyl Mat

We don’t play by the rules, we’ve made our own!

Alternative Game: DIY World Map on a floor cloth.

JJ is stretched out to her max on a pile of cards.

Alternative Game: World Map Interlocking World Map Puzzle

Alternative: DIY Montessori World Map – Felt

What do you think? Would this help your kids learn world geography?

ALSO READ: Scrambled States Geography Game for Kids

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8 Comments

  1. These are GREAT! We use placemats with US and World on it but you’d be surprised (ok, maybe not) at some of the things my kids will say.

    Like they think Australia is in Europe!! Or that a particular city is a state. Ugh.

    I need a huge map but it’s hard to keep them all current. Eastern Europe keeps changing so fast that when I helped my 6th grader study this past fall, I was amazed. Herzkovinia and all these other new countries!

    1. Eastern Europe and Africa both mess me up. I only remember a little because my college roommate was from Yugoslavia and I watched it’s situation closely.

  2. Love this idea! Too bad they don’t make that version anymore. I have a map on our wall and when the kids were small, we would put chairs in font of hte map and take pretend airplane rides around the world and talk about our destinations. My little man 2.5 loves to look at the map and ask- Where’s this? and after I answer… he’ll say “Oh, China.” It’s so cute.

  3. Wonderful! I would love to have two for my two four year olds who love to talk about the different ststes.