California Land and Borders
Explore California's neighbors, landforms and directions on the map.
California Land and Borders helps children see the shape of the state. They start with its neighbors: Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, Mexico to the south and the Pacific Ocean to the west. A map with a compass shows where each one sits, and the child answers by name and by direction.
Then the focus moves to landforms such as the Sierra Nevada, Lake Tahoe, the Central Valley, Mount Whitney and the Mojave Desert, plus facts about them. The final stretch asks which county a marked landform is in. Everything here is about California, so it works best for California students.
What children practice
- Name the places that border California on a map
- Use north, south, east and west to place a neighbor
- Identify California's mountains, lakes, valleys and deserts
- Recall land facts, such as the highest peak in the lower 48 states
- Tell how many U.S. states touch California
- Find which county a landform is in
Levels
- Level 1: Our neighbors
- Level 2: Which direction?
- Level 3: Landforms
- Level 4: Land facts
- Level 5: Which county?
- Level 6: Mixed review
How it works
- Level 1 marks a neighbor with a letter, and level 2 asks which direction it lies, with a compass on the map.
- Level 3 puts landforms on the map, and level 4 mixes land facts with border questions.
- Level 5 asks which county a marked landform is in, sometimes by tapping the county on the map.
- Wrong answers can be retried, each answer has a short explanation, and questions can be read aloud.
Best for: A good fit for grades 3 to 6 when a class studies California's physical geography or a child is learning compass directions.
Tip for parents: Ask your child to stand in a room at home and point toward the Pacific Ocean, then toward Nevada. Real pointing makes the compass questions on the screen feel less abstract.
Questions parents ask
How many U.S. states border California?
Three: Oregon, Nevada and Arizona. The game also teaches that Mexico is a country to the south and the Pacific Ocean lies to the west, so a child learns to tell a state, a country and an ocean apart.
Which landforms are included?
The Sierra Nevada, Cascade Range, Coast Ranges, Mount Shasta, Mount Whitney, Lake Tahoe, Mono Lake, the Salton Sea, San Francisco Bay, the Channel Islands, the Central Valley, Death Valley, Yosemite Valley and the Mojave Desert.
Is this the same as the California Counties game?
No. California Counties is about naming and tapping the 58 counties and their seats. This game is about neighbors, directions and landforms, and its county questions always start from a landform on the map.
Ready to try it?
California Land and Borders is free with a parent account. A parent adds a child profile, and the child's progress is saved.