THIRD GRADE

People, Places, and Regions: Geographic Studies

During the third grade, teachers capitalize upon students’ natural curiosity and their interest in the unfamiliar as geographic information is introduced regarding parts of the United States as well as the world. Students in Grade 3 learn from concrete experiences and benefit from resources such as pictures, graphs, maps, globes, and the World Wide Web (WWW) that help make abstractions more concrete. Instruction of this nature plays a dual role in helping students learn not only to use these geographic tools, but also to learn about other people and places. Learning firsthand about the food, clothing, art, and games of people of other cultures is also important in making the unfamiliar both real and interesting to third graders.

People, Places, and Regions: Geographic Studies is a year-long course that emphasizes the necessary skills and information students need to become knowledgeable about the physical, human, social, historical, and political world in which they live. In this third-grade course, all four essential strands are interwoven, placing the most emphasis on geography. This course builds upon the geographic knowledge acquired by students from kindergarten through second grade and establishes a firm geographic foundation for them to build upon throughout life.

Cherokee County Schools: The content standards, bullets and examples contained within this local version of the Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies are minimum content and are required for instruction. The activities and resources listed in this document are not all-inclusive, but are a representation from which one can pick, choose and blend with activities and resources already employed within the third grade setting. Resources are from state/county adopted textbooks and relevant websites. Content standards are listed; bullet information from the state course of study is labeled A, B, C,

Text Location	Alabama Course of Study	E	G	H	PS	SAT10	Alabama High School Graduation Exam	NCLB Reading/Writing	Resources
Map Handbook p. H10-H20	(COS – 1 a, b, c, d, e) 1. Locate the prime meridian, equator, tropic of Capricorn, tropic of Cancer, international date line, and lines of latitude and longitude on maps and globes. a.) Using cardinal and intermediate directions to find a location on a map or globe b.) Demonstrating an understanding of simple grid lines c.) Measuring distance between two locations using a scale of miles d.) Locating physical and human features on a map using labels, symbols, and legends e.) Identifying limitations of maps Example: projections and distortions of maps		X			X		Choral reading of poem on page 2	Alabama Extra Cards – Unit 6 activity 1 & 2 The Equator, Hemispheres, Tropic of Cancer, and Tropic of Capricorn http://geography.about.com /library/misc/blequator.htm Latitude and Longitude Lesson http://www.louisianaschools.net /lde/uploads/2558.pdf A map as a tool http://www.hawaii.edu/hga/ASGI00/Map.html Measuring distances http://www.es.mq.edu.au /courses/GEOS264/maps/mapch2/mdist.htm
Ch 1 Lesson 1,2,3 Ch 2 Lesson 1,2,3 Ch 3 Lesson 1,2,3,4 Ch 4 Lesson 1,2,3	(COS 8 a, b, c) 8. Identify geographic links of land regions, river systems, and interstate highways between Alabama and other states. Example: Tombigbee River a.) Locating the five geographic regions of Alabama b.) comparing laws that pertain to citizens of the United States, including pollution laws, highway speed limit laws, seat belt laws, and interstate trade laws c.) Describing cultural, political, and economic characteristics of people in the Western Hemisphere Examples: Cultural - types of clothes, homes, languages, religions; Political - functions of political units at different levels such as cities, states, and nations; Economic - natural resources, industrialization, living standards	X	X		X	X		CH 2 NCLB Card – Monitor Comprehension Ch 3 NCLB Card Partner Reading Ch 4 NCLB Card - Graphic Organizers	Alabama Information http://www.edpa.org/pdfs /Alabama%20Transportation%20Overview.pdf Land Regions http://www.allandtrust.org/regions.htm Not Your Grandma’s Lemonade Stand http://www.econedlink.org/lessons /index.cfm?lesson=EM276
Ch 5 Lesson 1,2,3	(COS 2 a, b; 4 b; 9) 2. Describe physical characteristics, including landforms, bodies of water, soil, and vegetation of various places on Earth. Examples: Landforms - mountains, hills, plateaus; Bodies of water - oceans, rivers, lakes; Soil - silt, clay, sand; Vegetation - tropical, desert, plains a.) Locating countries in the Western Hemisphere b.) Locating historical landmarks on maps Examples: the capitol of the United States, the Alabama state capitol, previous site of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, Statue of Liberty, Pearl Harbor 4. a.) Identifying human and physical criteria used to define regions Examples: Human - city boundaries, school district lines; Physical - hemispheres, regions within continents or countries 9. Identify ways to prepare for natural disasters in the United States. Examples: preparing for earthquakes by identifying structural needs of homes before building, constructing houses on stilts in flood-prone areas, buying earthquake and flood insurance, providing hurricane or tornado shelters, establishing evacuation routes	X	X X X	X X				NCLB Card – Unit 3 Model Fluent Reading	See Unit 3 Alabama Extras Card Landform Lessons http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/web/habitats.html Interactive Online Map http://www.lib.clemson.edu /GovDocs/maps/countries.htm Natural Hazards Lesson http://dmc.engr.wisc.edu /courses/hazards/BB02-01.html Natural Hazard Info. http://www.natural-disasters.com/
Ch 6 Lesson 1,2	(COS 2 c; 3 a; 7 a, b, c) 2. c.) Identifying processes of Earth, including continental drift, erosion, natural hazards, weather, and climate 3. Identify components of various ecosystems. Examples: discussing differences in soil, climate, vegetation, or wildlife a.) Identifying ways in which humans alter the physical environment Examples: oil spills, landfills, clearing of forests, urbanization, replacement of wetlands with farms, reforestation of cleared land, restocking of fish in waterways, planting of nitrogen-fixing crops such as legumes to restore nitrogen to the soil, planting of cover crops to prevent erosion 7. Describe the relationship between locations of resources and patterns of population distribution in the Western Hemisphere. Examples: presence of trees for building homes, availability of natural gas supply for heating and water supply for drinking and for irrigating crops a.) Locating major natural resources and deposits throughout Alabama, the United States, and the Western Hemisphere Examples: Alabama - iron, United States - timber, Western Hemisphere—fish from Canada b.) Describing present-day mechanization of labor as opposed to the historical use of human labor to harvest natural resources Examples: present-day practices of using machinery to mine coal and to harvest cotton and pecans c.) Evaluating the geographic impact of using major energy and technological resources in the twenty-first century		X X	X				Unit 3 NCLB Card Generate Questions	Earth Process lessons http://ithacasciencezone.com /earthzone/lessons/04surface/default.htm Soil Page http://soil.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html Interactive Site http://www.epa.gov /globalwarming/kids/index.html Ecosystem Matters http://www.na.fs.fed.us /spfo/pubs/misc/eco/index.html
Ch 7 Lesson 1,2,3,4	(COS 4; 10) 4. Locate population shifts due to geographic, economic, and historic changes in the Western Hemisphere. Examples: Geographic - floods, hurricanes; Economic - crop failures; historic - disease, war 10. Describe characteristics and migration patterns of human populations in the Western Hemisphere. Examples: Characteristics - birth rate, death rate, life expectancy, population density, food, clothing, shelter; migration - movement of migrant workers to other locations	X