Free 50 States and Capitals Game for Kids

What makes this game successful is that it causes kids to repeatedly look at the map and without even realizing it, they begin to memorize the states and capitals.

Here's the next step. You're going to be writing out a series of questions. How I like to do it is to take index cards, cut them in half and write one question per card. Here are some sample questions, along with their answers that you can try. Keep in mind that some questions can have multiple answers.

• This capital rhymes with Rover.
Dover

• This state has a greeting in it's name.
O"hi"o

• Find a capital with the word city in it.
Salt Lake City

• Find a state with two pairs of double letters.
Massachusetts

• Which capital is the name of a famous President?
Lincoln

• What capital has the same name as a famous explorer?
Columbus

• Find a state that begins and ends with the same letter.
Arizona

• This state has Kansas in it.
Arkansas

• Find a capital that has 11 letters.
Tallahassee

• This capital has the name of a season in it.
"Spring"field

• Look for a state that has S as its last letter.
Texas

• This capital begins with the letter B and ends in the letter K.
Bismark

• The name of this capital is also the name of a famous Native American tribe.
Cheyenne

• Find a capital beginning with the letter N.
Nashville

• This capital's name has the middle letter of L.
Salem

This should get you started. Just come up with more questions and answers based on the child's age and abilities. If you plan to play often, it's best to continuosly come up with fresh questions.

I just went through this again this year. I saw a big difference after my child played this just one time. Before playing, he knew about 60% of the states and 30% of the capitals. He played a few times over the course of a week and ended up getting 98% on his test.

Image by shebaduhkitty at morgueFile.

Now that you have the map and the questions, the only other thing you need is something to hand out each time a state or capital is correctly found. In our house, we just use pennies.

Although a child can play alone, it could be more fun to play with someone else. Playing the game is easy. Turn over a card and let the child find the state or capital that is asked for. Each time the correct answer is given, hand out a penny.

Decide in advance how many questions you want to give to them. I've found 12 to be a good amount, but you can do any amount. Whoever collects that amount of pennies first wins!

Image by Kevin Rosseel at morgueFile.

It's easy to keep track of your child's progress with this game. What I suggest is to print out the blank map below and before playing for the first time, see how many states and capitals your child knows.

After playing, hand the map back and see how much new information is filled in. Do this each time you play so not only will you know how your child is progressing, you'll also know which states and capitals you should make questions about to help your child learn them.

In addition, my kids always were so proud when they saw how much progress they made.

Image by alvimann at morgueFile.