Iowa Map Activity
A printable Iowa map worksheet: color the state, label Des Moines and its major cities, and draw in the rivers and higher ground.
5 questions · Map activity · Application
Iowa is one of the fifty states, and its capital is Des Moines. 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 Iowa 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.
Iowa
Capital: Des Moines
Iowa Map Activity
This is a map of Iowa. Use the facts in the box and the star on the map to finish all five tasks.
Remember
- The capital of Iowa is Des Moines.
- Three of its largest cities are Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Sioux City.
- Rivers in Iowa include Mississippi River, Missouri River and Des Moines River.
- Iowa 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 Iowa 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: Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Sioux City.
- 4.
Draw and label these rivers: Mississippi River and Missouri River.
- 5.
Iowa has no mountain range. Write "no mountains" in a corner of the map and say what the land is like instead.
★ marks Des Moines, 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.Des Moines - the capital of Iowa. The star is printed where the city is.
- 3.Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Sioux City - each marked with a dot and labeled. Cedar Rapids is the largest of them.
- 4.Mississippi River and Missouri River - drawn as a wiggly line and labeled.
- 5.No mountain range. Iowa is low and flat, so the answer describes plains, coast or lowland.
What this sheet teaches
- Find Iowa on a map of the United States.
- Name and locate Des Moines, the state capital.
- Locate Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Sioux City within the state.
- Draw the main rivers of Iowa and say roughly where they run.
Notes for the adult
- Colored pencils are enough — nothing on the Iowa 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 Des Moines is, so a child who writes another city has read the map rather than the fact box.
- Cedar Rapids and the Mississippi River are placed by eye. Mark them on whether they are in the right part of Iowa relative to Des Moines, not on whether they land within a mile of the truth.
What is on the page
There are one part to Iowa 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 Iowa rather than answered in writing.
Iowa on this sheet
The star is printed on Des Moines, close to the middle of the state, at roughly 41.6°N, 93.6°W. Of the 50 state capitals this site has a map sheet for, that makes it the 18th furthest north and the 20th furthest west. The nearest other state capital is Lincoln, about 170 miles away in Nebraska — 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 Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Sioux City. Three rivers go on next — Mississippi River, Missouri River and Des Moines River — drawn in by hand rather than traced. There is no relief to shade on this one — Iowa 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 Iowa is about 1.5 times as wide as it is tall, so the widest labels are the ones that need planning before the pencil goes down. 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 Cedar Rapids on whether it is in the right part of Iowa, not on whether it lands within a mile of the truth.
What it asks of the student
Iowa Map Activity puts about 136 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 Iowa 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 78 words.
Where this one sits
Iowa 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 Florida Map Activity (grade 4) and Georgia Map Activity (grade 4). If Iowa 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.
More like this
Two-Letter State Abbreviations Practice Worksheet
Grade 8 worksheet on USPS two-letter state abbreviations, drilling easily confused pairs like MN/MS and AR/AZ through matching, analysis, and recall.
US States by Region
Grade 6 worksheet on US regions: students match, analyze, and explain which states belong to the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, or West.
State Capitals — Matching and Analysis Worksheet
Drill state capitals with matching, multiple-choice, and short-answer questions focused on states whose largest city is not the capital.
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