Label the States on the Map
A printable US map with 49 states numbered and a numbered list where students write each name. Hawaii is drawn but not numbered. Free PDF with the answer key.
49 questions · Map activity · Application
One map, 49 numbered states, and a line for each. The numbers are printed on the map in reading order rather than alphabetically, so nothing about the ordering gives an answer away. The 8 states along the north-east coast are too narrow at this size to hold a number inside them, so theirs sit in the margin on the end of a pointer, with a rule to write the abbreviation on. Hawaii is drawn on the map but is not numbered: at this size it is too small to mark without a pointer running the width of the country. The answer key lists them in the same order as the map.
Label the States on the Map
Every state on the map has a number. Write the name of each state beside its number on the list below. Where a number sits beside the map on the end of a pointer, write that state's two-letter abbreviation on the short rule as well.
Remember
- 49 of the fifty states are numbered on this map. Hawaii is drawn but not numbered — too small at this size to mark clearly.
- The 8 states too narrow to hold a number have theirs on the end of a pointer, with a rule for the two-letter abbreviation.
Write the state names
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Answer key
Name every state
- 1.Washington
- 2.North Dakota
- 3.Vermont
- 4.Maine
- 5.Oregon
- 6.Idaho
- 7.Montana
- 8.Minnesota
- 9.Wisconsin
- 10.New York
- 11.Massachusetts
- 12.Connecticut
- 13.New Hampshire
- 14.Rhode Island
- 15.Wyoming
- 16.South Dakota
- 17.Iowa
- 18.Michigan
- 19.Pennsylvania
- 20.New Jersey
- 21.Nevada
- 22.Utah
- 23.Colorado
- 24.Nebraska
- 25.Illinois
- 26.Indiana
- 27.Ohio
- 28.West Virginia
- 29.Virginia
- 30.Maryland
- 31.Delaware
- 32.California
- 33.Kansas
- 34.Missouri
- 35.Tennessee
- 36.Kentucky
- 37.North Carolina
- 38.Arizona
- 39.New Mexico
- 40.Oklahoma
- 41.Arkansas
- 42.South Carolina
- 43.Texas
- 44.Louisiana
- 45.Mississippi
- 46.Alabama
- 47.Georgia
- 48.Alaska
- 49.Florida
What this sheet teaches
- Name the states from their shape and their position on the map.
- Tell apart states that look alike, such as Colorado and Wyoming, by where they sit rather than by outline alone.
- Find the small north-eastern states, which are numbered from the side because they are too narrow to hold a number, and give each one its postal abbreviation.
Notes for the adult
- Fifty is a lot at once. Doing it a region at a time — the West, the Midwest, the South, the North-east — is usually better than working straight down the list.
- The north-eastern states on the leader lines are the ones most often missed. They are worth naming together before the sheet is handed out.
- The answer key is in map order, not alphabetical, so it reads straight down against the student's list.
What is on the page
Printed on one side, Label the States on the Map runs to one part and 49 exercises. Map work throughout — one kind of exercise, done 49 times, rather than a page that changes its demand halfway down.
Under "Name every state" there are 49 tasks, all of them carried out on the printed outline of the state rather than answered in writing.
49 ruled lines are printed for written answers on Label the States on the Map, which decides how long it takes more than the question count does. The answer key prints on its own page at the end, so the sheet can be handed out without it.
What it asks of the student
Label the States on the Map puts about 316 words of reading in front of the student — the fact box, the directions, every question, and every printed option. That is the number worth checking against a class before it goes out, because a sheet that is pitched right on the history and wrong on the reading fails for the same child either way. The longest single prompt on it runs to 5 words.
Writing runs the other way on Label the States on the Map: 49 ruled lines for 49 of the 49 exercises, and the full answer key comes to 59 words. Everything else is answered in a blank, in a box, or on the map itself, which is why the sheet takes a lesson rather than a homework slot.
Where this one sits
Label the States on the Map is one of 61 US States & Capitals sheets on this site and one of 19 written for grade 5. 53 of them share its topic, the fifty states, which is worth knowing before printing two that overlap.
The closest things to it are Georgia Map Activity (grade 4) and Hawaii Map Activity (grade 4). If Label the States on the Map lands well, those are the ones to reach for next; if it lands badly, the application sheets a grade either side are usually the adjustment rather than a different topic altogether.
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The Fifty States at other grades
This sheet: Grade 5, 49 questions — map activity. The same topic is also written for:
- Recognizing the Fifty US States Worksheet — Grade 3 · 12 questions, matching, fill in the blank, multiple choice · application work
- Identifying the Fifty U.S. States — Grade 4 · 15 questions, matching, fill in the blank, multiple choice, short answer · application work