Kansas Map Activity
A printable Kansas map worksheet: color the state, label Topeka and its major cities, and draw in the rivers and higher ground.
5 questions · Map activity · Application
Kansas is one of the fifty states, and its capital is Topeka. 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 Kansas 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.
Kansas
Capital: Topeka
Kansas Map Activity
This is a map of Kansas. Use the facts in the box and the star on the map to finish all five tasks.
Remember
- The capital of Kansas is Topeka.
- Three of its largest cities are Wichita, Kansas City and Overland Park.
- Rivers in Kansas include Kansas River, Arkansas River and Missouri River.
- Kansas 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 Kansas 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: Wichita, Kansas City and Overland Park.
- 4.
Draw and label these rivers: Kansas River and Arkansas River.
- 5.
Kansas has no mountain range. Write "no mountains" in a corner of the map and say what the land is like instead.
★ marks Topeka, 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.Topeka - the capital of Kansas. The star is printed where the city is.
- 3.Wichita, Kansas City and Overland Park - each marked with a dot and labeled. Wichita is the largest of them.
- 4.Kansas River and Arkansas River - drawn as a wiggly line and labeled.
- 5.No mountain range. Kansas is low and flat, so the answer describes plains, coast or lowland.
What this sheet teaches
- Find Kansas on a map of the United States.
- Name and locate Topeka, the state capital.
- Locate Wichita, Kansas City and Overland Park within the state.
- Draw the main rivers of Kansas and say roughly where they run.
Notes for the adult
- Colored pencils are enough — nothing on the Kansas 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 Topeka is, so a child who writes another city has read the map rather than the fact box.
- Wichita and the Kansas River are placed by eye. Mark them on whether they are in the right part of Kansas relative to Topeka, not on whether they land within a mile of the truth.
What is on the page
Printed on one side, Kansas 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 Kansas rather than answered in writing.
Kansas on this sheet
The star is printed on Topeka, in the east of the state, at roughly 39.0°N, 95.7°W. Of the 50 state capitals this site has a map sheet for, that makes it the 30th furthest north and the 19th furthest west. The nearest other state capital is Lincoln, about 135 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 Wichita, Kansas City and Overland Park. Three rivers go on next — Kansas River, Arkansas River and Missouri River — drawn in by hand rather than traced. There is no relief to shade on this one — Kansas 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 Kansas is about 1.8 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 Wichita on whether it is in the right part of Kansas, not on whether it lands within a mile of the truth.
What it asks of the student
Kansas 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 Kansas 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 76 words.
Where this one sits
Kansas 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 Label the States on the Map (grade 5) and Alabama Map Activity (grade 4). If Kansas 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