Game on the relief of Spain: rivers, mountain ranges and drainage basins on the map
A physical geography game where everything happens on the map of the Iberian peninsula: the rivers drawn in blue and the ridges of the mountain ranges in brown. You are asked for the Tagus, the Pyrenees or Sierra Morena and you tap them; in other rounds there are three numbers on the map and you put each name on its number; on medium you sort the rivers into drainage basins (Cantabrian, Atlantic or Mediterranean) and on hard you find where each river rises or reaches the sea. The rivers pass through their real cities: the Douro through Soria and Zamora, the Tagus through Toledo, the Guadalquivir through Córdoba and Seville.
Geography · Primary, Secondary
The Central System splits the Meseta in two: the Douro flows to the north and the Tagus and Guadiana to the south; Sierra Morena and the Baetic System enclose the Guadalquivir valley. Seeing rivers and mountains together on the map shows why each river runs where it does.
Almost all the big rivers flow into the Atlantic because the Meseta tilts to the west; the Ebro is the great Mediterranean exception, and the Cantabrian rivers are short because the mountains are so close to the sea. Sorting the rivers into their boxes sticks better than a list learnt by heart.
Only what every textbook agrees on is asked: the Ebro rises at Fontibre, the Tagus in the Montes Universales, the Guadalquivir in the Sierra de Cazorla; the Douro reaches the sea at Porto and the Tagus at Lisbon. The source of the Guadiana, which each textbook places somewhere different, is never asked.
"«Which sea does each river flow into?» comes up with the Ebro, the Tagus, the Segura and the Nalón. The pupil puts the Ebro in the Atlantic because it is so long, and the game corrects them: the Ebro flows into the Mediterranean, at the delta in Tarragona; the Tagus is the Atlantic one."
Prefer to learn without screens? Try this analogue version:
Trace the outline of the peninsula on a sheet of paper, with no names.
Draw the six big rivers and the six main mountain ranges from memory.
Colour each river by its basin: blue for the Atlantic, green for the Mediterranean and purple for the Cantabrian.
Compare with the game: when it marks your answer, the map shows where each one was.
If you like Rivers and Mountains, these activities work similar skills:
Multiple-choice questions on the relief, rivers and climate of Spain, with an explanation for each answer.
Read climate graphs and work out which climate they belong to.
Point to the provinces and regions of Spain on the map.
More practice on · Geography
Physical Geography
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