Learn Countries in Central and South America with Fun Acronyms 🌎

Do you find it a challenge to get your students to learn their countries on a map? It doesn’t have to be hard. My seventh graders learned and retained countries using acronyms. Every Friday they would have map quizzes. We didn’t just cover them once. First, we began with North America, Central American and South America (one region at a time). Then, we moved to Northern Europe, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe. We studied Asian regions, African regions, and the Oceanic Region (Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and its many islands). After completing this round-the-world study, we would start over with North America. By the end of the year, my students knew each country’s location. They understood each country’s position concerning other countries. Most came back to me and said, “Because of your class, high school geography was so easy!”

But why even learn the countries when we have maps? First, It helps students develop a better understanding of the world around them. Understanding where different countries are located on a map can give students valuable insights into geography, history, and culture. Second, it also promotes a sense of global awareness and empathy toward people from other nations. By learning about the locations of countries, students can appreciate the diversity and interconnectedness of our world. Additionally, knowing where countries are situated can be helpful in planning trips. It aids in understanding current events. It also prepares our students for living and working in a globally connected world.

Acronym stories can be a total game-changer when learning the location of countries in Central and South America. I mean, who has the time to memorize all those countries without a little help? Use acronyms to navigate diverse landscapes easy. Trust me, it’s a fun and effective way to make learning about Central and South America a whole lot easier!

HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES:

Central America:

️Great big 🐘 Elephants have nasty crunch poop.

[Start from the top moving south, left to right]

Great — Guatemala 🇬🇹

Big — Belize 🇧🇿

Elephants — El Salvador 🇸🇻

Have — Honduras 🇭🇳

Nasty — Nicaragua 🇳🇮

Crunch — Costa Rica 🇨🇷

Poop! — Panama 🇵🇦

South America(West)

Can Enrico pour a bowl 🥣 of chili again?

[Start from the top moving south on the West Coast of South America.]

Can — Colombia 🇨🇴

Enrico – Ecuador 🇪🇨

Pour (a) –Peru 🇵🇪

Bowl (of) – Bolivia 🇧🇴

Chili — Chile 🇨🇱

Again – Argentina 🇦🇷

(Tell students that Bolivia looks like a bowl turned sideways with chili pouring out of it.)

(Ecuador has a door into Peru and Colombia.)

South America: (North/East)

️Very gentle sloths feed (on) bananas 🍌 (while) propelling upside (down) 🙃.

[Start from the top moving west to east and then south on the East Coast of South Am.]

Very — Venezuela 🇻🇪

Gentle — Guyana 🇬🇾

Sloths — Suriname 🇸🇷

Feed (on)— French Guayana 🇬🇫

Bananas (while) — Brazil 🇧🇷

Propelling — Paraguay 🇵🇾

Upside down — Uruguay 🇺🇾

(I always call Paraguay and Uruguay the twins! — since I am a twin myself. 😁)

HERE IS A SITE THEY CAN USE TO PRACTICE. CLICK HERE.

Need a resource to customize your map quizzes? This tool lets you make a retake quiz in less than a minute. These were designed by yours truly as a solution to an ongoing, time-consuming problem. Constantly spending time creating quizzes and retakes. I needed to find a way to shave some time off my workload. Check it out here;

✅ Here is a free acronym generator for you to use with your students. You can have students work together to create their own silly acronym stories. They love doing this and come up with the funniest, craziest acronym stories! You may be surprised at how creative they can be! They are more likely to remember the acronym story if they create it themselves. Using this method is a great study tool to teach. Give it a try!