Review: Skill Sharpeners Geography - Grade 1

 If your are looking to supplement your geography lessons then this book is a great idea. Skill Sharpeners goes over a few of the main things that your child needs to learn in geography. What I like about this book is that it starts off with a reading section to ease the student into the lesson then they get to do some work on the topic and end with a hands-on activity to really drive the concept home. 

There are 5 main topics to this geography book. Each topic is expanded onto help the student really learn the core concept. Our daughter really likes how colorful this booklet is. A lot of times the ones that are just black and white can get a bit stagnant. The lessons are relatively short so doing one lesson in a day is completely doable. Since we do school year round and I like to have each item span over the year we only do a couple pages a week. 

The reading sections are very straight forward and right to the point. This is great because most students at this age are not going to want to pay attention to something long and complicated. Since it’s only 2 pages of reading it is very captivating for the younger children. The pictures are also bright and cheerful. 

Then they move onto the topic being visually shown. What I love about this is that even if your student is an auditory learner they still get to see it visually done and vice-versa for the visual learners. Often most people are either auditory or visual learners; maybe even both. So having both is a huge plus to this book. The visual section also has bright pictures incorporated. Most of them involve drawing shapes, writing or matching things. If your child doesn’t like working on shapes or writing they may find that doing them in a different lesson is enjoyable in this book. 

Next up is the vocabulary. Sometimes this involves a word search, drawing or filing in the blank. Our daughter started reading very early with All About Reading but with some of the words in this book are to involved for her so I read them and help her along the way when she needs it. It is perfectly fine to help your child then they need it. Finally they get to the hands-on part; which is always the most fun part. The majority of these sections your student will get to cut and paste. I really like this because they are 1 doing the lesson and actively engaging in the work and 2 they get to practice their cutting and glueing skills. If you enjoy this type of booklet then I encourage you to take a look at the other Skill Sharpeners book that Timberdoodle has to offer.