GeoGuessr – Let’s Explore the World!

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Okay, admit it. Have you clicked down to street view in Google Maps, and then accidentally found yourself 20 minutes later strolling down the street where you once walked in a city you stopped in, trying to remember the name of that ice cream store? Or, strolling the paths you once walked on your semester abroad (ME)?

GeoGuessr is a website that turns strolling streetside via Google Maps into a game. AND – here’s the part that really gets me excited as a language teacher – you can limit the parts of the world it drops you into.

I’m getting ahead of myself.

Here’s how Geoguessr works:

  1. You start (duh).
  2. The game places you in a street view location *somewhere*. You can move around as much as you want, and look around as much as you want. The point is to try and figure out where the game placed you!
  3. You select on the map where exactly you think you are, according to the information you’ve gathered in your strolling.
  4. The closer you are = the more points. Boom!
  5. 5 rounds = 1 game. Careful…it’s addicting.

It’s super fun, and really encourages the students to pay attention to the surroundings. I find them googling characters, trying to figure out what language they’re seeing on the signs. I also encourage them to look at the scenery – what kinds of plants do you notice? Are there people? Are they dressed for warm or cold weather? Sometimes they notice things like – “HEY! This car is driving on a different side of the road!”

When to Use Geoguessr

When I taught 6th and 7th grade, I kept this in my toolbox to pull out during advisory or homeroom times. We would all get super into it, and I let the students record their scores on the whiteboard to encourage competition!

Worldwide makes for a really cool game, but what I really like is that you can select specific areas, or even topics. There’s a few that are for specific big cities or landmarks – really dig into the options!

Game links:

My students easily play for 30-40 minutes and get “cranky” if I try to move them along.  Like I said, you get hooked! Try a game for yourself and see!

Ashley Mikkelsen

Hi, I'm Ashley. I'm so glad you're here! I love helping secondary Spanish teachers with engaging activities and ideas for their lesson plans. I can't wait to support you with no and low prep activities to help reduce your workload!

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12 Responses

  1. I <3 Geoguesser. Obsessed. started with the world and then did Argentina to start the Argentina. They love it! How do you access specific regions if you haven't "earned" your way to those countries.

  2. Hola!
    I just tried playing and no picture came up for me to look at. I even watched a you tube video to see how it was played and logged back in and still no starting picture. Any advice?

    1. I’d never had that happen before, but it happened to several of my students while we were playing this morning! They waited awhile, then it loaded and they could play. A few ideas:
      -Make sure your browser is updated
      -Try using a different broswer
      -It might be Geoguessr having some hosting issues..in that case there’s not a lot we can do! (Bummer!)

  3. Great idea! Thanks! Do you use this a a group activity or are kids competing against each other individually (or in small groups)? Also, when you use this as a sub activity, how do you set it up when you aren’t there to keep kids focused on the activity?

    1. Kind of all of the above! I’ve used it as a sponge where they just write their scores on the board and the whole class is playing, as a warm up where they compete against their small groups, and as a sub activity it’s only PART of the day – not the whole 50 minute class period, just because I do want them to stay focused 🙂 I hope that helps!

  4. Thanks for the idea – I’d never heard of the site before. I see games are limited to 5mins every 15mins? How do you work around this aside from paying for Pro?

    1. It must be a new-er “freemium” change. Boo!! Maybe sharing to screen and playing as a whole class instead with one user at a time?

      1. Just came across this and looks so fun! But seems like maybe there are no free options anymore. Unless I’m missing something?

        1. ughhhh. They have been changing it every year and it’s been harder and harder for me to find them. I’ll have to take another look before I use it next time!!

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