Major League Geography

Here comes baseball season (and another excuse for learning!)

ADDED April 03, 2009

Ah, yes. The crack of the bat, the vendors hawking peanuts and Cracker Jack, the mascots of indeterminate species. Yes, people, baseball is back. (It starts this coming Monday.) And we honor the new season of this uniquely American sport with a little . . . geography. That's right: geography.

Professional sports offer a fine opportunity to teach your children about American places. If your kids love sports, wouldn't they be interested to see all the cities and states from which competing teams hail?

For the new baseball season, we've created this handy map. Print it out and pass it over to the kids.

First have your children make a small X to show your city or town. And then, do you guys cheer for a certain team? If you do, locate it on the map, and have the kids spruce it up with some colors. Next, if your kids know and remember other teams, find those on the map. Have your kids color each in as you go along. And have them color each state you discuss. For each baseball team, it's not enough to mention the city--we want to know states, too. What state do the Boston Red Sox come from? How about the Cincinnati Reds? (And if the team already provides the name of the state, well then, we want to know the city. Yes, we mean you: Arizona Diamondbacks, Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies!) Try to discuss all the teams and have your kids color the whole map in.

Baseball team names offer an opportunity for more interesting conversations and possibly some vocabulary learning. What exactly is a Padre? Why was the San Diego team given that name? Why were the Twins given that name? What is a Marlin? If you don't know any of these answers, simply turn to trusty ole Wikipedia. (My kids were particularly interested to hear how the Houston Astros got their name. If I'm not careful, my boys, with their love of all things space- and rocket-related, might just switch allegiances on me.)

You can hang your kids' colorful map up. When the baseball team your family follows is playing an opponent, the kids can be in charge of finding the opposing team on the map.

Play ball! (And go Dodgers!)

--S

(Thank you, DeusXFlorida, for the use of the baseball photo above!)