The USA

Add to My Folder

By Christine Jenkins – education writer

Use the landmarks, people and traditions of the USA as a focus for a variety of cross-curricular activities – a ‘land of opportunities’ for firing children’s imagination.

Where in America?

Ask pupils what words and images come to mind when think of America. Use a globe to show the location of the USA compared with the UK. Tell pupils that they are going to be learning more about the world’s third largest country.
Give pupils the Activity sheet , ‘American landmarks’. In pairs, they should match the landmarks and definitions, and find the location of each to record on their map. Can they think of any other famous American landmarks? What else can they find out about them? KS2 pupils could use Google maps to view satellite or Street View images of the landmarks, or this could be done as a whole class with KS1 pupils.
The landmarks can be used as inspiration for an array of different activities. For example, pupils could choose a landmark and sculpt it using found objects, make a poster with ‘Did You Know’ facts about it, or create a brochure encouraging tourists to visit it.