How to use this continents printable
Plan this as two short sessions of about 15 minutes. You'll need a pencil, crayons and, if you have one, a globe or a world map.
- Read the first fact page together. Australia, Asia, Africa and Antarctica each get one or two simple sentences: kangaroos and koalas, Mount Everest, the Nile, and penguins on the ice. Find each one on your globe as you read.
- Read the second fact page. North America, South America and Europe, then the five oceans. Ask your child which continent you live on.
- Color the map page. It's a gentle break after reading. Your child colors the folded map and traces the word "map."
- Write the seven continents. In the second session, your child finds each continent on the globe and writes its name on lines 1 to 7. Leave the fact pages out to copy from.
If your child asks questions you can't answer, write them on the back of a page and look them up together later. Curiosity is the best part of a first geography lesson.
Tips by age
Age 5: Read the facts aloud and let your child point to the animals' homes on the globe. Write the continent names lightly for them to trace over on the writing page.
Age 6 to 7: Let them read one fact each, take turns, and copy the names from the fact pages onto the writing page.
Age 8 to 9: Ask them to write the names from memory, then check with the fact pages. Add a challenge: list the continents from biggest to smallest, or name one animal for each.
Games to play with the pages
- Globe spin: spin a globe, stop it with a finger, and say which continent or ocean you landed on.
- Animal homes: say an animal from the fact pages and see who can name its continent first.
- Continent song: chant the seven names to a tune your child knows, then fill in the writing page from the song.
- Kitchen map: find where your food comes from (bananas, rice, chocolate) and mark the continent on the colored page.
The continents are a perfect partner for a holiday tour of the world. Our guide to Christmas around the world for kids visits one country a day and includes a passport and map you can use alongside these pages.
When your child is ready for more
After learning the seven names, children are ready for the five oceans in more depth, which animals live where, and countries and flags. The full unit covers all of that.
Intro to the World: 7 Continents has 24 pages for ages 5 to 9. Besides the pages in this sample, it has an animals-by-continent sorting activity, flags to color, a world map coloring page, tracing and writing pages, cut-out cards, a maze, a matching page, a cut and paste page and a draw and write page. It makes a complete first geography unit you can spread over a week or two.
Questions parents ask
It suits children aged 5 to 9. Kindergartners can listen to the fact pages and color the map, while 6 to 9 year olds can read the facts themselves and write all seven continent names. It works as a first geography lesson at home or a quick review for older children.
The seven continents are Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America. Asia is the biggest and Australia is the smallest. The five oceans are the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern and Arctic, and the Pacific is the biggest. All of these are on the two read-together pages.
Yes. These 4 pages are a free sample from our Intro to the World: 7 Continents unit. Choose color or black and white in US Letter or A4 and the PDF downloads right away. You don't need to sign up or share an email, and you can print copies for each child.
It helps. The writing page asks children to find each continent on a globe or map before writing its name. Any globe, atlas or free online world map works. If you have none, the read-together pages give enough clues to write the names from memory.
The full unit has 24 pages: read-aloud facts for all seven continents and five oceans, animals-by-continent sorting, flags to color, a world map coloring page, tracing and writing pages, cut-out cards, a maze, a matching page, a cut and paste page and a draw and write page.
