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Australia Geography Printables – Free Printables

australia-geography-printables

In our geography studies this year, I have been updating and adding to our printable collection. Today I have a few new and updated printables to share with you based on the country of Australia. If you are working on a geography unit for Australia, these printables will be a fun addition to your learning. Don’t forget to check below too. There are links to several helpful art projects and lesson plans from other homeschool moms to help you out as well.

Australia Mapping Page, Country Factsheet, and Flag Printables

Flag of Australia printable

The Australia Geography Printables include the following worksheets:

  • an Australian mapping sheet {map rivers, countries, mountains, and other geographical information}
  • an Australian country factsheet to write down information about Australia including when it became a country, current population, climate, type of government, and more
  • an Australia flag coloring page
  • an Australian flag information sheet and notebooking page

 

 

 

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Download button

 

We’ve been using the below books to help us fill in the information blanks with our pages: 


 

 

 

More Geography Resources

Here are a few helpful sites to look at in your Australia studies:

Don’t miss these FREE geography printables listed by continent…

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world flag cards for matching free homeschool geography resources 10 tools for teaching geography - hands on ways to incorporate geography learning

Click on one of the globes below to search for geography resources by continent. Each page has downloads for flag coloring and information pages, mapping pages, and links to blog post full of lesson plans and additional information.

 

Africa   Asia   Australia
Europe    North America    South America
 

 

 

 

We also highly recommend taking part in a Little Passports subscription! Not sure which adventure to choose for your explorer? Check out these Little Passports website for more information. 

Continents Fact Files Printable – Geography Printables

continent-fact-files-and-flash-cards-from-homeschool-creations_edited-1 

This year Kaleb and I have been wandering around the world via books, Little Passports, and various other things we come across in our travels. We have a slew of resources and to go along with a few of our books, I put together some printables where we could track important information related to the countries. 

continent-fact-files-printables-from-homeschool-creations_edited-1

 

There are several pages for each continent: a blank continent image, one showing countries/territories within the continent, and another labeling each of the countries/territories within the continent (Antarctica only has one page). 

All continent fact pages were designed using the traditional Montessori colors: Africa (green), Antarctica (white), Asia (yellow), Australia (brown), Europe (red), North America (orange),  and South America (pink). 

Each page has room to record the following information and also shows where that continent is in comparison to other continents: 

  • Size/Area
  • Number of Countries
  • Population
  • Highest Point
  • Place with Most People
  • Climate
  • Top Landmarks
  • Natural Resources
  • Nearby Oceans

We’ve been using the below books to help us fill in the information blanks on each continent fact file: 


 

simple-continent-cards-from-homeschool-creations

The set also has seven half-sheet printables we recommend printing off onto cardstock and laminating. Use them as larger flash cards to show the various country/territory divisions on the continents. We have a copy in each of our continent boxes and will put them on the wall above our map when we are studying the continent. 

 

 

We also highly recommend taking part in a Little Passports subscription! Not sure which adventure to choose for your explorer? Check out these Little Passports blog posts and learn more about their four subscription options:

Download the Continent Fact Files & Continent Cards

Your family is more than welcome to download the 23 page Continent Fact Files as well – and we hope they are a help to you!

 Download button

 

More Geography Resources

 

 

world flag cards for matching free homeschool geography resources 10 tools for teaching geography - hands on ways to incorporate geography learning

Click on one of the globe to search for geography resources by continent. Each page has downloads for flag coloring and information pages, mapping pages, and links to blog post full of lesson plans and additional information.

 

Africa   Asia   Australia
Europe    North America    South America
 

 

10 Tools for Teaching Geography & Exploring the World

10 tools for teaching geography - hands on ways to incorporate geography learning

We are barely finished with this school year, and over the last few weeks (ok, months) I’ve been piecing together what we will be doing during the upcoming school year. One of my initial plans for this past year was to work on world geography with the boys. Unfortunately, I went a little overboard in my mind and it was put to the side – mainly because I wanted to reinvent the wheel and put together a billion ideas (which were all good) into creating our own curriculum. 


Rather than running myself ragged – and truthfully in an effort to keep it more simple – I’ve decided to use something that is already pre-planned – Elementary Geography and Cultures from Masterbooks. It’s a curriculum I’ve been eyeing for quite some time (thanks to my friend Carisa) and includes the books Passport to the World and the Children’s Atlas of God’s World .  Yes, I will likely end up reworking some of my past geography printables and also create a few additional go-alongs for what we are doing, BUT I am so very excited about this one year world geography plan. 

Now, while having a curriculum framework to follow is great, the most effective way to teach our kids geography is through the hands-on tools that go along with ANY curriculum. Here are 10 tools for teaching geography – all things our family has used (and will use again) to keep learning fun.

10 Tools for Teaching Geography

10 tools for teaching geography and exploring the world

1 // Read Lots of Literature (and then some more)

One of the things we enjoyed the most our first geography go-round were the many books that are available based on the countries we studied. From missionaries that served in the country to picture books about artists or scientists, there is an amazing abundance of books to read and learn through. If you’d like to see the books we read through before, check out this page and click on the continent link to see favorites by country. 

2 // Play and Learn Music

Music can be one of the best tools to use for children to memorize things. Our girls used Geography Songs and we’ll use that again for learning countries, bodies of water, and continents.

Also spend time listening to composers who were born in the different countries or music that is native to the geographical areas. Take a trip to your library and check out a few CDs or have fun browsing YouTube to see traditional dances. 

3 // Create Art

Amazon Animal Chalk Pastel-17

Learn about artists native to the country you are studying or special art styles that are based in a geographical region.  When we were studying the Amazon, we used chalk pastels to draw frogs, toucans, and other animals from the rainforest. They were some of our favorite drawings we’ve done! 

4 // Create Continent Boxes

Put aside and group all of the hands-on materials you collect into boxes (or bags) based on countries or continents. Over the years we’ve collected many fun things (some from our subscription to Little Passports) and also some new materials (I am absolutely in love with TOOBS and their animals and landmark figures). I’ve purchased seven photo storage boxes to keep all our materials in one spot. (Thanks to Counting Coconuts for the idea.)

5 // Learn about the Animals

Include a little science learning into each geographical area you study by looking at animals that are native to to that country. Our girls loved learning about kangaroos and koalas when we studies Australia, peacocks when we learned about India – and there are so many more. Learn about their habits, diet, and classification. We often created lapbooks and those stayed on our shelves to review for years to come.

6 // Eat and Cook a Special Meal Together

 

Cooking is not only a life skill for kids to learn, but it can be a memorable way to learn about a country. Depending on the country you are studying, pick a recipe or create a meal that would be native to that country (granted Antarctica might be a little hard…), but snow cones might be a favorite! Every now and then we would treat the kids to a special meal out if we had a great restaurant in town, because sometimes the cultural experience is equally (or even more) fun. If Pinterest is too overwhelming, the book Eat Your Way Around the World is full of recipes to try.

 

7 // Put a Puzzle Together

While you are reading out loud or keeping fidgeting kids busy, pull out a puzzle and work on it together. We have all of the GeoPuzzles and absolutely LOVE them. Rather than being regular shaped puzzle pieces, each piece is shaped like the countries within that continent. 

8 // Make Lego Creations

Using Legos in the Classroom

Legos may never leave our home. Our kids have a plethora of them, and we will definitely be incorporating them into our geography time filling out blank outline maps, building famous landmarks…or getting a good laugh in when the kids depict the most hilarious historical scenes with LEGOs. (Sometimes you just have to laugh even though beheading are no laughing matter.)

9 // Draw Through the Countries

Have a child that loves to draw? Pull out the Draw Write Now series and let your kids illustrate their way around the world. Use the Draw and Journal pages to draw a picture of an animal or landmark in that country and write down a few facts to go along. Our kids love to draw while I’m teaching – and it can help them remember facts better as well. Geography Through Art is another great book that includes art projects using different mediums – from all around the world.  

10 // Use Geography Printables

free geography resources

If you know me well, you’ll know that I love creating printables that help our kids in the learning process. Over the years we have used a variety of printables, both ones I’ve pulled together and ones from other blogging friends. Here are a few free geography resources

 

Those are a few of the ways we incorporate fun into our geography studies – how has your family expanded geography learning together? 

 


Learning About New Zealand ~ the Land of Kiwi

New Zealand was a stop we took in our geography travels after learning about Australia. New Zealand has two main islands and is in the South Pacific Ocean. We spent time learning about the many meanings of the word ‘kiwi’, the culture of the Maori people, how the flag was created; read/learned about sheep, talked about Sir Edmund Hillary and even learned a little about the sport of rugby.

Week 1 Layout

Monday

  • Introduce new song about New Zealand from Geography Songs
  • Use atlas and globe to locate New Zealand
  • Talked about the size of New Zealand  and that New Zealand is called the ‘land of the long white cloud’

  Tuesday

map of New Zealand

 Click on thumbnail to download pdf file

Wednesday

Thursday

Week 2 Layout

Monday

  • Review geography song
  • Watched a video about Maori warriors on You Tube {see below for video clip and link}
  • Learned about the flag of New Zealand

flag of New Zealand

Click on thumbnail to download pdf file

 

Tuesday

  • Review geography song
  • Learned about Sir Edmund Hillary ~ from New Zealand and climbed Mt. Everest
  • Talked about rugby and the All Blacks team
  • Completed some sheets about Sir Edmund Hillary {see links below}

Wednesday

  • Review geography song
  • Visited Time for Kids ~ New Zealand 
  • Talked about the three different meanings of the word ‘kiwi’ ~ fruit, bird and nickname of people from New Zealand
  • Ate some kiwi :)
  • Drew a picture of a kiwi bird

Thursday

  • Review geography song
  • Summarize one of our reading books and copy summary/dication
  • Added our notebooking pages to our binder and stamped our passports!

Books We’re Using

Resources and Websites

Australia ~ Our Studies of the Land Down Under

We took two weeks to study the continent of Australia ~ and since I’m already behind in my geography posting, this post will have both weeks of our lesson plan layouts in it. Our first week we focused more on geography, currency, the Australian  flag, etc.. and during our second week learned about kangaroos, koalas, did lots of drawing, took some virtual tours and completed some minit books for our notebook. Here’s a peek at our studies:

Week 1 Layout
 

Monday

  • Introduce new song about Australia from Geography Songs 
  • Use atlas and globe to locate Australia
  • Talked about the size of Australia {slightly smaller than the US}
  • Independent reading ~ the girls spent this week reading Destination Australia together each day

Tuesday

  • Review geography song
  • Learn {and reviewed} some geography terms: coral reef, desert, rain forest, island, & also about Ayers Rock
  • Fun saying some Australian slang words
  • Learned about the flag of Australia using our notebooking page
Australian flag thumbnail Click on thumbnail to download pdf file

Wednesday

Thursday

Week 2 Layout

Monday

  • Review geography song
  • Looked at the Australia for Kids slideshow
  • Independent reading {McKenna ~ Dingoes at Dinnertime}
  • Completed our mapping activity of Australia
Mapping Australia thumbnail Click on thumbnail to download pdf file

Tuesday

  • Review geography song
  • Took a little tour via the site Time for Kids – Australia
  • Learned about animals that are unique to Australia: platypus, kangaroo and koala were the ones we focused on
  • Used Draw Write Now to draw a koala bear {Book 7}
  • Independent reading

Wednesday

  • Review geography song
  • Used Draw Write Now to draw a kangaroo {Book 7}
  • Worked on our minit books about kangaroos {from Homeschool Share}. We put these books on a sheet of cardstock and added them to our geography notebook. Minit books we focused on: kangaroo facts, kangaroo family, all about pouches, kangaroo matchbooks, kangaroo habitat, birth and care of joey, kangaroo diet
  • Independent reading

Thursday

  • Review geography song
  • Watched a video on the Sydney Opera House
  • Drew our own maps of Australia using Draw Write Now as a guide
  • Summarize independent reading book and copy summary/dication
  • Added our notebooking pages to our binder and stamped our passports!

Books We Used

 
Resources and Websites
 

 

 

Country Flag Card Printables

world flag cards for matching

I’ve been working on this printable for far.too.long, and FINALLY sat down this weekend, got productive and have it ready to share with you all! :) I put these together to help our kids identify the flags of the various countries we’ve been studying during our Galloping the Globe studies {with a few extra countries thrown in for good measure}.

There are 35 countries represented on the cards with two cards for each flag so it can be played as a ‘memory’ game. The set also contains 6 cards that represent 6 of the 7 continents {Antarctica is excluded} so the cards can also be sorted by the continent the country flag belongs to. Country name cards are also included for your child to match the names of the countries with the appropriate flag.

Since I don’t know every flag and what country it belongs to *ahem*, I included a key at the end of the document to help you all double check your answers. :)

 


 

 

I hope that a few of these resources help you all out ~ let me know if you all have any questions or have problems with the download.