Indiana Map Activity
A printable Indiana map worksheet: color the state, label Indianapolis and its major cities, and draw in the rivers and higher ground.
5 questions · Map activity · Application
Indiana is one of the fifty states, and its capital is Indianapolis. 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 Indiana sits. The five tasks move from coloring the state in to placing its cities, rivers — the same order an atlas builds a map up in.
Indiana
Capital: Indianapolis
Indiana Map Activity
This is a map of Indiana. Use the facts in the box and the star on the map to finish all five tasks.
Remember
- The capital of Indiana is Indianapolis.
- Three of its largest cities are Fort Wayne, Evansville and South Bend.
- Rivers in Indiana include Wabash River, Ohio River and White River.
- Indiana has no mountain range — the land is low and mostly flat.
Your tasks
Work down the list in order. Everything is done on the big map below.
- 1.
Color the whole state of Indiana 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: Fort Wayne, Evansville and South Bend.
- 4.
Draw and label these rivers: Wabash River and Ohio River.
- 5.
Indiana has no mountain range. Write "no mountains" in a corner of the map and say what the land is like instead.
★ marks Indianapolis, 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.Indianapolis - the capital of Indiana. The star is printed where the city is.
- 3.Fort Wayne, Evansville and South Bend - each marked with a dot and labeled. Fort Wayne is the largest of them.
- 4.Wabash River and Ohio River - drawn as a wiggly line and labeled.
- 5.No mountain range. Indiana is low and flat, so the answer describes plains, coast or lowland.
What this sheet teaches
- Find Indiana on a map of the United States.
- Name and locate Indianapolis, the state capital.
- Locate Fort Wayne, Evansville and South Bend within the state.
- Draw the main rivers of Indiana and say roughly where they run.
Notes for the adult
- Colored pencils are enough — nothing on the Indiana 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 Indianapolis is, so a child who writes another city has read the map rather than the fact box.
- Fort Wayne and the Wabash River are placed by eye. Mark them on whether they are in the right part of Indiana relative to Indianapolis, not on whether they land within a mile of the truth.
What is on the page
Printed on one side, Indiana Map Activity runs to one part and five exercises. 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 Indiana rather than answered in writing.
Indiana on this sheet
The star is printed on Indianapolis, close to the middle of the state, at roughly 39.8°N, 86.2°W. Of the 50 state capitals this site has a map sheet for, that makes it the 26th furthest north and the 30th furthest west. The nearest other state capital is Frankfort, about 130 miles away in Kentucky — 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 Fort Wayne, Evansville and South Bend. Three rivers go on next — Wabash River, Ohio River and White River — drawn in by hand rather than traced. There is no relief to shade on this one — Indiana has no range named in the sheet's fact box, so the map finishes at the rivers and the page stays a little quicker than most.
The outline of Indiana 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 Fort Wayne on whether it is in the right part of Indiana, not on whether it lands within a mile of the truth.
What it asks of the student
Indiana Map Activity puts about 134 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 22 words.
Nothing on Indiana 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 77 words.
Where this one sits
Indiana 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 Identifying the Fifty U.S. States (grade 4) and Label the States on the Map (grade 5). If Indiana 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