ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A FUN WAY TO TEACH CHILDREN BASIC COUNTRY FACTS?
Our Crafty World has you covered!
In this post, we talk about the benefits of playing the game of Concentration to learn basic country facts and offer you a FREE Mexico Concentration Game to begin using with your children or students. (You can also access our FREE Thailand Concentration Game here).
This is not a boring worksheet with lists to memorize, but rather an interactive and very simple game your children can use on their own or in a group.
WHY I LOVE CREATING AND USING CONCENTRATION GAMES TO LEARN BASIC COUNTRY FACTS
When I taught world culture enrichment classes to children I would always start the first class with an introduction to basic country facts.
While truly learning about a country goes way further and deeper than knowing these basic country facts, I do consider them a necessity.
My philosophy is that the best way to learn – and remember – is by using your hands and seeing something visually.
And ya gotta make it fun too!
I used to cringe at the worksheets my kids would bring home from school full of facts that needed to be memorized for a test.
Those poor words on a page, black and white, with no heart and soul to them! Who could possibly be motivated to learn with a study tool like that?
For some kids, like my son who has super-human memorization skills, this works, but for other kids, it is time-consuming, laborious and BOR-ING!
But let’s not forget that all kids learn differently.
My daughter, on the other hand, has dyslexia and reaps the benefits of hands-on activities that show her the concept visually through pictures or drawings.
To hand her a list of countries and their capitals on paper and then ask her to memorize them would be like me being handed a recipe written in Russian and asked to cook it for a dinner party that night.
It would be really, really frustrating – and likely NOT happen!
Show my daughter a map (with its colors, shapes, and vibrancy) to accomplish the same goal and memorization takes place almost automatically.
REMEMBER THE GAME OF CONCENTRATION?
In this game, all cards are placed face down to start. The goal of the game is to flip over the cards – only two per turn – to eventually find a match.
So, to teach the basic country facts of Mexico, we have created a simple Mexico Concentration Game for children to play alone or with a group.
Watching children play our Mexico Concentration game, you will be amazed at how quickly and easily learning occurs!
Children will quickly learn the basic country facts about Mexico which will free you up to plan and execute other Mexico projects to deepen your studies.
Rest assured, the perfect foundation for your Mexico unit will have been laid once the Mexico Concentration Game has been played.
3 IMPORTANT BENEFITS OF PLAYING CONCENTRATION TO LEARN BASIC COUNTRY FACTS
The goal of the game is to make a match, so right off the bat, a student’s attention is honed into the max in order to make progress in the game.
Not only are students trying to remember where cards are located, but each time they turn over a new card, they are taking in the visual information with great attention so learning basic country facts happens quickly.
2) Repetition Leads to Retention
Make it a rule that students have to read each card every time they turn it over. By repeating key information in addition to seeing each visual on the card, it is likely that at the end of the game this information is forever locked into the “brain vault”. Students will be able to more easily retain and recall this information at a later date.
3) Good, Old-fashioned Fun is Motivating
The game of Concentration is fun – plain and simple. Therefore, by enabling your students to play Concentration in this way, you have just made learning basic country facts fun too. Score!
USE OUR COUNTRY FACT CARDS TO FURTHER YOUR STUDY OF MEXICO
Now that you have a deck of basic country fact cards for Mexico, ask children to pick their top three favorites (in terms of interest) then help them find creative ways to learn more about them. For example…
Find a flan recipe and make it for your family or school group.
Plan a Day of the Dead celebration in your home or classroom.
Write a report or create a country board using all or some of the country facts provided in your Mexico Concentration Game.
The ideas are endless!
MAKE YOUR OWN GAME OF CONCENTRATION
Making your own game of concentration is easy.
To make the cards: Cut paper squares using cardstock (you don’t want your cards to be see-through!) or use store-bought index cards.
To add categories and photos: Using our Mexico Concentration Game as a guide for which categories to include, write the name of each category on the cards (leaving plenty of space for a photo). Next, search the internet for images of each category, size them to fit your cards, and then glue them onto each card. Remember to print two copies of your cards.
Now you have a Concentration game to teach children the basic country facts of any country!
START PLAYING OUR MEXICO CONCENTRATION GAME!
Click here to access our FREE Mexico Concentration Game.
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