United StatesMake a Map Jigsaw Puzzle
Grade Levels: 3 - 5
Objectives
- Students will review U.S. geography as they create a jigsaw puzzle from a map of the United States.
- Students will become more familiar with the locations, names, and capitals of the fifty states.
Materials
- Outline map of the United States
- Scissors
- Crayons or colored pencils
- Small plastic sandwich bag for storage
Procedures
- Hand out a map, scissors, and small plastic bag to each student.
- Explain to students that they will be creating a jigsaw puzzle by cutting out each state from the map.
- Instruct students to use colored pencils or crayons to color regions of the map and/or label states and capitals before cutting the map. Students may use a classroom map or other reference materials to help them fill-in the map. (This will make the puzzle more useful as a study tool.)
- Once the map is labeled, have each student use scissors to cut out each state. These will become the puzzle pieces.
- Store the pieces in a plastic bag.
Extension Activities
- Help students learn the names and locations of the fifty states with a jigsaw puzzle game.
- This activity can be modified for world geography by using printable maps of world regions or continents.
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