Kinds Of Maps For Kids

The uses of maps are diverse. Maps can be used for anything that is related to the direction and the location. There are different kinds of maps for kids that are widely used in schools to teach children how to read maps. Most maps emphasize on various boundaries, cities, states and countries, water and land forms. There are some maps that highlight detailed subjects like rainfall distribution, weather etc. All maps have some kind of importance for different people as they highlight the unique information about different places on the earth and are used to learn and understand various destinations.

Thanks to maps, children know how to outline their city, states or country. Maps also provide with accurate information about boundaries, geography, climate and topography of various regions. Let us look at the various kinds of maps for kids that teach them about the basics of map reading and also help them understand geographical and political boundaries

Physical Maps – A Physical map displays the various physical features of different locations like hills, mountains, plateaus, oceans, lakes, rivers and region specific flora. In these kinds of maps for kids the color Green indicates vegetation in lower landforms like agricultural land while the color brown and orange focuses on elevation like hills, mountains and natural vegetation. The water forms are highlighted by the color blue, whereas the different landscapes are shown with darker colors.

Political Maps – These kinds of maps for kids are most important to teach political boundaries and world history. These maps do not emphasize on the physical or topographical features in the area like mountains, rivers ocean etc; it focuses on the boundaries that separate countries, states or cities. These maps highlight the capitals of various states or countries with a circle.

Climate Maps – Climate maps, as the name suggests focus on the climate of various geographical areas. The information is segregated on the basis of the temperature, the average precipitation, the average snowfall that an area receives etc. These kinds of maps for kids usually use different colors to signify a specific climatic change within a location.

Topographic Map – In these kinds of maps for kids, the difference in topography is highlighted by contour lines instead of denoting it by colors to highlight a specific landscape. These maps identify steep terrains and flat terrain in areas by using thick and thin lines.

Outline Maps – Outline maps are widely used in schools to study the geographical boundaries of various nations, states and cities. These kinds of maps for kids help them identify how a specific country looks like just by looking at the outline of the map. Some outline maps focus only on the national boundary while others also focus on the states and cities within.

Learning these maps at school make students aware about boundaries, learn about different countries, their topographies, their climate and other physical features like mountainous regions, hills, valleys, ocean, rivers, lakes etc. This is how maps are categorized into several types. There can be many other types, but above stated types are well-known and widely in use.