California Map Activity
A printable California map worksheet: color the state, label Sacramento and its major cities, and draw in the rivers and higher ground.
5 questions · Map activity · Application
California is one of the fifty states, and its capital is Sacramento. This sheet prints the outline of the state large enough to work on, with a star already marking the capital, and a small map of the whole country in the corner so a student can see where California sits. The five tasks move from coloring the state in to placing its cities, rivers and mountains — the same order an atlas builds a map up in.
California
Capital: Sacramento
California Map Activity
This is a map of California. Use the facts in the box and the star on the map to finish all five tasks.
Remember
- The capital of California is Sacramento.
- Three of its largest cities are Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego.
- Rivers in California include Sacramento River, San Joaquin River and Colorado River.
- Its higher ground includes Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges.
Your tasks
Work down the list in order. Everything is done on the big map below.
- 1.
Color the whole state of California lightly in one color, staying inside the outline.
- 2.
Find the star on the map. Write the name of the state capital on the line beside it.
- 3.
Mark and label these cities with a dot: Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego.
- 4.
Draw and label these rivers: Sacramento River and San Joaquin River.
- 5.
Shade where this higher ground is and label it: Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges.
★ marks Sacramento, the state capital. Write its name on the line.
Answer key
Your tasks
- 1.The whole outline is colored in, and the coloring stays inside the border.
- 2.Sacramento - the capital of California. The star is printed where the city is.
- 3.Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego - each marked with a dot and labeled. Los Angeles is the largest of them.
- 4.Sacramento River and San Joaquin River - drawn as a wiggly line and labeled.
- 5.Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges - shaded and labeled in roughly the right part of the state.
What this sheet teaches
- Find California on a map of the United States.
- Name and locate Sacramento, the state capital.
- Locate Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego within the state.
- Draw the main rivers of California and say roughly where they run.
Notes for the adult
- Colored pencils are enough — nothing on the California sheet needs paint, and the outline is large enough that a fine tip is not required either.
- Task 2 is the one to check first: the star is printed exactly where Sacramento is, so a child who writes another city has read the map rather than the fact box.
- Los Angeles and the Sacramento River are placed by eye. Mark them on whether they are in the right part of California relative to Sacramento, not on whether they land within a mile of the truth.
What is on the page
There are one part to California Map Activity, five exercises between them. Map work throughout — one kind of exercise, done five times, rather than a page that changes its demand halfway down.
Under "Your tasks" there are five tasks, all of them carried out on the printed outline of California rather than answered in writing.
California on this sheet
The star is printed on Sacramento, in the west of the state, at roughly 38.6°N, 121.5°W. Of the 50 state capitals this site has a map sheet for, that makes it the 32nd furthest north and the 5th furthest west. The nearest other state capital is Carson City, about 100 miles away in Nevada — a useful thing to say out loud to a student who assumes every state is the size of their own.
The cities to mark are Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego. Three rivers go on next — Sacramento River, San Joaquin River and Colorado River — drawn in by hand rather than traced. Higher ground is shaded last: Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges.
The outline of California is about 1.6 times as tall as it is wide, which leaves narrow margins either side for city names. It is drawn from the same vector data as the map on this page, so what prints on paper is what is on the screen, and a photocopy of it holds up. Positions are estimated by eye: mark Los Angeles on whether it is in the right part of California, not on whether it lands within a mile of the truth.
What it asks of the student
California Map Activity puts about 126 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 18 words.
Nothing on California Map Activity is answered on ruled lines — every response goes onto the map itself, or on the short rule beside a task — so the whole of it fits on one side of paper and the full answer key runs to 80 words.
Where this one sits
California Map Activity is one of 61 US States & Capitals sheets on this site and one of 59 written for grade 4. 53 of them share its topic, the fifty states, which is worth knowing before printing two that overlap.
The closest things to it are Mississippi Map Activity (grade 4) and Missouri Map Activity (grade 4). If California Map Activity 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 4, 5 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
- Label the States on the Map — Grade 5 · 49 questions, map activity · application work