Resources for Learning Map Skills

It might not seem that important for kids to learn map skills these days, unless you like to hike or do things outdoors where there might not be internet access. But kids still like looking at maps and learning how to read them, even if the skills aren’t used all that often in everyday life. And of course we still use them to teach geography.

Homeschool Happiness has a great set of printables all about map skills. The set includes vocabulary words like compass and globe, a compass kids can cut and paste directional words onto, a park map activity, map symbol matching, a town printable with a map key and compass and more.

Once you have the basics you can draw your own maps of your house, neighborhood, the route to school (or the library or somewhere else you go often if you are homeschooling) or a longer trip like going to a grandparent’s or cousin’s house or plotting your last or next vacation.

You can even have kids draw their own treasure maps and tell the story of what is hidden there and how to find it. Use printable treasure map templates from Tim’s Printables, or try this printable treasure hunt activity from Let’s DIY it All.

Kids may also enjoy books about maps like Follow that Map! A First Book of Mapping Skills by Scot Ritchie (2025 Kids Can Press). The story follows a group of kids looking for their lost dog and cat. They use a map to visit all their favorite places in the neighborhood and other places in the city and beyond. The story includes a map on each page and questions for readers to answer such as which direction are they going and how far away are they from something shown on the map.

It also includes things like a weather map, a treasure map, a map of an amusement park and a map of the world. There are also instructions for making a map of your bedroom.

Do you teach kids map skills, or did they learn them at school if they go to school? I’d love to hear about it!

Learning numbers actually involves a few different skills, from recognizing the shape of the number and knowing the word that goes with it to understanding one to one correspondence for counting and what order the numbers go in.

A lot of this is learned best through play and activities that get kids counting and tracing and otherwise interacting with numbers. These activities can help.

I specifically mentioned tracing above because of these number formation rhymes cards from Teaching Mama, which can be used in lots of ways to practice making the shapes of the numbers, including tracing, lining up items on the number shapes (and counting them!), using playdough to shape the numbers and so on. Each number has a little rhyme to help you remember how to make it, which is cute.

And speaking of playdough, you can find lots of playdough number mats with different themes for kids to use as they learn about numbers. Preschool Play and Learn, for example, has these cute apple themed ones that also teach one to one correspondence as you learn the numbers and count to 10.

Or use these tree-themed ones from Live Over Cs to form the numbers, count out items on a ten frame and place the correct number of items in the tree to match the number (do this with playdough, little buttons or whatever manipulatives you have on hand). Your little builders will also love these Duplo number mats from Life Over Cs, which allow you to shape the number out of blocks and count out the number of blocks that corresponds to each number.

I also love these mats from The Savvy Sparrow that include the number and the word you can trace with playdough or marker, showing how to count the number on your fingers, a tens frame and a number line.

Finger plays and counting songs are lots of fun for little ones, too, and Childhood 101 has a great collection of songs and rhymes having to do with numbers (as well as printable song cards you can use with them.

This cardboard roll number chain form Hands On As We Grow would be a fun addition to singing number songs or to use in other play and counting games. And we all love something easy to make with stuff we already have.

Older kids who already know the order of numbers can also use these connect the dot number printables from Fun Learning for Kids. Or use the shapes for playdough mats or to practice tracing even for kids who don’t know all the numbers in order yet.

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