Using puzzles to teach geography

A few months ago I got a map of Africa puzzle, and as we put it together for the first time I recognized the possibilities in this geography puzzle.  I turned around and ordered puzzles for the rest of the continents as an amazing new supplement for our homeschool geography lessons.

(there are affiliate links in here)

What to look for in your geography puzzle

You want puzzle pieces in the shape of countries OR states (depending on what you’re ordering), I’ll elaborate on this in a minute, but it is the number one decider for me on buying a geography puzzle.

Next, you want thick pieces.  From time to time you’ll find geography puzzles at the dollar store, or I’ve made them by cutting up maps, but they are not as durable as the nice thick pieces you can find in a quality puzzle.  If you’re doing a one-time project, then print out a map and cut it up.  But, if you want to pull out your puzzles for years to come, get a nice good quality geography puzzle.

Of course, that’s how I generally feel about puzzles, I always have the worst luck with the lower-priced puzzles not working correctly.

Geography puzzles teach so much

What can you do with geography puzzles?’’

• learn the relative size of countries
• learn locations of countries
• learn capitals of countries
• put the countries of continents in alphabetical order
• learn about major bodies of water in a country

Okay that’s all well and good, but I hate putting puzzles together, what else can I do?

I have it on good authority you can trace them for making cookies.  Do you know what else you can trace the countries for?  Art projects, reports, and to prove for once and for all if Texas is bigger than Alaska (I know it isn’t, but I have a friendly joke going with a friend from college up in Alaska, poor Alaska is not built to size on those puzzles, but then neither is Hawaii).

I’ve been loving our geography puzzles, and if you’ve been sitting on the fence about buying a puzzle, then let me assure you, get off the fence and buy some.  You won’t regret it (this is written to me of several years ago, who had debated buying them and didn’t until now).

The geography puzzles we have

(these are Amazon affiliate links)

• Africa GeoPuzzle
• World puzzles (6 puzzles one box), bought after we got to Africa and realized how awesome this is
• Melissa and Doug wooden United States puzzle (my kids now put it together not on the board for an extra challenge)

How do you use geography puzzles at your house?