Get the kids out and exploring with this activity! Hide and Seek Countries: World Edition is an engaging project for the kids to work on. It takes them on a journey around the world as they get to explore different countries while learning about GPS coordinates, latitude, and longitude.
Hide and Seek Countries: World Edition
This self-directed no-prep activity will teach the student about GPS coordinates, longitude and latitude lines, and fun facts about countries around the world. The student is given the GPS coordinates for thirty different countries and they will need to find those countries using Google Maps.
Introduction
Before we go any further, let me introduce myself to you. My name is Kaycee and I am a homeschooling mama to our large family. We have seven beautiful children who we have homeschooled from the very beginning of time.
We have a child at every level of learning from preschool to high school. As you can imagine, I am constantly on the prowl for creative ways to teach them and I find a lot of success when I can turn a typical lesson into a game or activity.
Right now, we are focusing on World History and Geography. Whenever I teach our children about a place, I like to take a trip so they can see and experience the area for themselves. As you can imagine, international travel is a bit out of our league right now.
This is what inspired this activity… I can’t go but I can help them learn about these concepts and countries virtually. I even added a little mystery to it by creating a bit a scavenger hunt.
We just finished our Latitude and Longitude Unit Study and I really wanted them to have an opportunity to put the skills we learned in that unit to test and I was not disappointed!
However, it is a perfect stand-alone resource too. The student has all the information they need within this project to complete it and learn about GPS Coordinates, Longitude, and Latitude.
Oh, and before we go any further, the Latitude and Longitude Unit Study is available to download for free! It teaches them what latitude and longitude lines are and gives them two hands-on projects to help them wrap their minds around this lesson. I hope you will check it out!
What subjects are covered in this activity?
This activity includes science, technology, and geography.
GPS Coordinates
The student will begin by reading about what GPS Coordinates are and how they are used.
Longitude and latitude are imaginary lines you find on maps and globes and are used as the earth coordinate system or Global Positioning System (GPS) Coordinates. These lines are used to tell people where you are.
Let’s say you want to go to a birthday party at a friend’s house, but you have never been to their house before. What do you do?
You get on the internet and pull up a website or an app that will give you directions about how to get there. That website or app will use the GPS coordinates to give you directions from your current location to your friend’s birthday party.
When you are looking up latitude and longitude, remember that the latitude coordinates come first followed by a coma, and then longitude coordinates.
The coordinates will contain numbers with a decimal point and a letter symbolizing the direction.
Find the Country
After they are done reading, they will cut out all the flags included on the dotted lines. Then they will need an electronic device and access to the internet to use Google Maps. In the search box, they will enter the GPS coordinates listed on the Hide and Seek Country Clues and see where in the world it takes them.
Once they have determined the hidden country, they will read the fun fact about the country that is listed next to the GPS coordinates and glue the flag in the blank box on the Hidden Country Clues. They will continue until they have found all the countries.
After they are done, they can visit the Google Earth website and do some “sightseeing” in their favorite countries.
Help! The country is still hiding! I can’t find it!
This happened to us a couple of times and every time I encouraged the child to look at how they entered the coordinates. If they forgot the comma or direction, it would not work. It took some concentration and focus but they got the hang of it really quick.
Have you…
- Typed the coordinates into the search bar correctly?
- Included the comma?
- Included the direction letter?
Technology
I recommend Google Maps for this activity because they make it extremely easy to figure out the country when you enter the GPS coordinates. When they put the coordinates in, it will transport them to the country’s capital city except for the United States of America. Instead of Washington DC, it will take them to New York, New York.
They also used Google Earth to do some exploring. It was an amazing experience!
Tips for Activity
I am truly fortunate to have a high schooler who loves to instruct his brothers and sisters. I handed him this activity and let him run with it. We did find a few things that made it go more smoothly.
- Gather all the supplies needed
- Prepare the flags first
- Divide the kids into groups of two
- Partner the older kids with younger kids
Gather all the supplies needed
Before we get started, I have the children gather whatever supplies we are going to need for the project. This helps them focus on the work instead of running around to get whatever they need. It also helps everyone else stay on task too because it’s very distracting when you have everyone jumping up every two seconds.
Prepare the flags first
Sam, our high school student, had all the kids cut their flags first. He had them spread the flags out into different areas, so they had plenty of room to work. They laid all the flags out face up so they could see them easily. This way when they found a country, they glued the flag in its spot right away.
Divide the kids into groups of two
We found that if we divided the kids into groups of two, it worked so much better. They were given one electronic device to share and then worked together to solve the country clues. They took turns entering the GPS coordinates into Google Maps.
Partner the older kids with younger kids
We are a large family so our children are used to the good old buddy system. Everyone participated in this project except our preschooler. We have kiddos in the following levels of school:
- Preschool
- Kindergarten
- Elementary
- High School
For our kindergartner, it was all about cutting the flags out on the dotted line and gluing them into the correct place. We partnered her with her eleven-year-old sister who did a wonderful job guiding her through the process. She was immensely proud of her completed project when it all done!
The rest of them were paired into groups of two based upon their ability to work together without fighting! Ha! The joys of homeschooling!
It’s not a race!
I did have to remind them a couple of times that this was not a race! In fact, I wanted them to stop and explore the countries on Google Maps if they wanted too. This was not about who could finish first but instead about learning.
All our kiddos really enjoyed this activity. The fact that they had to do a little investigating on their own made it more fun. Andy, our ten-year-old, could have worked on this all day long because he was so fascinated with the countries and their maps. He kept telling Sam how much he loved it!
Do your kids like the game of hide and seek? Check out this geography activity today!
Thanks for reading this post! The Hide and Seek Countries: World Edition can be downloaded from my Teachers Pay Teachers store. We genuinely appreciate you supporting this journey of ours!
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