Objectives
Name the continent, country, state, and community in which the student
lives.
Locate Maryland and Baltimore on a map of the United States.
Suggested Books
Student Titles
Hirst, Robin and Sally Hirst. My Place in Space. New York: Orchard,
1988.
Materials
Classroom size world map
Classroom size U.S. map
Teacher Note:
This geography lesson will serve as a review of the geography topics
that were covered in the Second Grade Core lessons. Be sure to reinforce
topics if you have students in your class that are not firm on the material.
Procedure
Hold up an addressed envelope and/or an addressed postcard. Ask: If
you wanted to send a letter or a postcard to someone what would you have
to do to make sure that your message got to the right person and place?
(You would have to write the person's name and address on the letter or
postcard.) Write the following on the board:
Name
Street
City
State
(Point to each item on the board as you talk about it.) Tell the students
that the first two items listed would be different for each of us in this
room, but the city and state would be the same. Have a student name the
city in which they live and have another student name the state in which
they live. Write Baltimore and Maryland next to City and
State on the board. Ask the entire class to answer in unison the
questions "What city do you live in?" and "What state do you live in?"
Explain to the students that if they wanted to be more specific in
telling where they or someone else lives they could name the country in
which they live. Add Country to the list on the board. Ask a student
to name the country in which we live? Write United States next to
Country on the board.
Tell the students that if they wanted to be even more specific they
could name the continent on which they or someone else lives. Add Continent
to the list on the board. Ask a student to name the continent on which
we live. Write North America on the board next to Continent.
Pointing to the list on the board, say: Now let's see how many of these
places we can find on a map. Ask for a volunteer to come up and locate
the continent of North America on the classroom size world map. Next, ask
a student to circle with their finger the United States on the world map.
Switch to a classroom size U.S. map and have a student locate the state
of Maryland and the city of Baltimore.
If possible read My Place in Space by Robin and Sally Hirst
aloud to the students. This is
a story about a boy who tells where he lives by starting with his home
address and ending with the planet on which he lives.
Third Grade - Geography - Lesson 2 - Geography Review
Objectives
Locate a particular city and country on a map.
Name the continent in which a particular country can be found.
Identify the location of a city/country in relation to the equator.
Suggested Books
Student Titles
Brisson, Pat. Magic Carpet. New York: Bradbury, 1991.
Priceman, Marjorie. How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World.
New York: Knopf, 1994.
Materials
Classroom size world map
1 per group of four
Postcard dittos (included)--Write the name of a city and country on
each postcard. A list of cities and countries is included below.
Teacher Note:
The following activity is a project designed to review basic concepts
in geography that will be completed in groups. Each group will present
information they have collected about the city and country they have been
given. You may wish to have books in the classroom representative of the
countries to give the students a chance to learn more about the place they
have been assigned.
Possible list of cities and countries
Sydney, Australia
Washington, D.C, The United States
London, England
Tokyo, Japan
Cairo, Egypt
Mexico City, Mexico
Quito, Ecuador
Madrid, Spain
Nairobi, Kenya
Procedure
Divide the students into groups of four. Assign a recorder, reporter,
a person to point out the locations on the map, and an artist to draw a
picture on the front of the postcard. Give each group a postcard that has
been addressed with a city and country. Tell the students that they are
going to collect information about the place they have been assigned. Explain
that they will present the information they collect to the rest of the
class.
Write the following on the board:
Locate the city and country
Name the continent
Name the ocean(s)
equator--north or south
Northern or Southern Hemisphere
Interesting facts
As you point to the directions on the board. Say: Your team will need
to collect the following information.
- Locate the city and country on a world map. (If you only have the
classroom size world map, have the groups come up to the map one at a time.)
- Name the continent on which the city and country can be found.
- Name the ocean or oceans that border the continent.
- Identify if the city is located above or below the equator.
- Identify if the city is found in the Northern or Southern hemisphere
- List facts about the city or country--such as animals that can be
found in that country, national landmarks (The Washington Monument, The
Eiffel Tower, etc.), geographical features (major mountain ranges or rivers).
(If there are resources available in your classroom have the students research
the city and/or country to find facts.)
Have each group present the information about their city/country to
the class
Third Grade - Geography - Lesson 3 - Geography Review
Objectives
Locate the seven continents.
Recognize that Canada, the United States, and Mexico make up North
America.
Locate Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Central America.
Measure straight-line distances using a bar scale.
Suggested Books
Student Titles
Brisson, Pat. Magic Carpet. New York: Bradbury, 1991.
Priceman, Marjorie. How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World.
New York: Knopf, 1994.
Materials
Classroom size world map
1 per student
Scale worksheet
Ruler
Procedure
In order to help the students recall the names of the seven continents,
you may wish to teach the students the Continental Clap from the first
grade core lessons (x over a word indicates a clap).
The Continental Clap
The continents are seven lands.
We can say them while we clap our hands.
x x
A - sia
x x x
Af - ri - ca
x x x x
North A - mer - I - ca
x x x x
South A - mer - I - ca
x x x
Ant - arc - ti - ca
x x
Eu - rope
x x
and Aus - tral - ia
Using a world map, call on volunteers to point to a continent as you
say the name of each. After all seven have been located, direct the student's
attention back to the continent of North America. Ask: What is the name
of the country in which we live? (the United States) Remind the students
that there are two other countries that make up the continent of North
America (Canada, Mexico). Ask the students to recall the country to the
north (Canada) and the country to the south (Mexico). Call on students
to locate Canada, the United States, and Mexico on the map. Ask: What is
the area of land that is below Mexico and connects North America to South
America? (Central America) Have a student locate Central America on the
map.
Explain to the students that we have just been using a map to locate
places: continents and countries, but sometimes people use maps for other
reasons. Ask: What are some of the things that a person could use a map
for? (Accept reasonable answers and be sure to point out that there are
many different kinds of maps: maps that show where cities are located,
maps that show streets and highways, etc.)
Tell the students that another use of a map is to figure out the distance
from one location to another. Explain that since we know what is shown
on a map is a smaller version of the actual place, we know that the distance
between places on a map is actually much greater than what is shown. For
instance, if we were to make a map of our school or classroom on a piece
of paper, we would know that those two places take up much more room than
is shown on our map.
Tell the students that a map sometimes has something called a scale
on it to tell you what the distances on the map represent in terms of real
distance. Explain that one type of scale is a bar scale. Tell the students
that the bars in the map scale are marked off to show distances on the
map. Give each student a copy of the worksheet and a ruler. Have the students
find the bar scale on the worksheets and then line up their rulers under
the bar scales. Write the word miles on the board. Tell the students
that miles measure distance. Write the word inches on the board.
Tell the students that the scale tells us that inches stand for miles.
Ask: How long is each bar in the bar scale? (one inch) Tell the students
to look below the scale to see what each inch stands for. Ask: How many
miles does one inch stand for? (1 inch equals 10 miles) Therefore, how
many miles would 2 inches stand for? (20 miles) How many miles would 3
inches stand for? (30 miles) Tell the students that they are going to use
the scale to measure the distance between points.
Give the students the following directions:
1. Line up the edge of the ruler with the first point.
2. Record how many inches there are between one town and another.
3. Check the bar scale at the top of the worksheet to see what distance
in miles each inch represents.
4. Multiply the number of bars you counted times the distance those
bars represent. (On this worksheet one bar represents 10 miles, so if the
students have not mastered multiplication, they may count by tens the number
of bars they have counted.)
5. Record the number of miles there are from one town to another.