Unit Plan: Geographys Role in Society

Lesson Plan for Wednesday Grade: 1st Social Studies Strand: Geography

Submitted By: Michele Stering

EDEL 453: Teaching Elementary School Social Science Nevada State College Spring 2014 Instructor: Karen Powell

Lesson Plan for Wednesday

B. Summary of the Lesson Plan:

Strand: Geography

submitted by: Michele Stering

During this lesson students will learn about different land and water features which make up Earths geography and sort pictures into categories. This lesson uses the textbook, Geography from A to Z a Picture Glossary. C. Basic Information: Grade Level: 1st Time to Complete this Lesson: approximately 50 minutes Groupings: Whole group during guided instruction, independent during activity & assessment.

D. Materials: Geography from A to Z a Picture Glossary by Jack Knowlton Maps from Mondays guest speaker Scissors glue Pictures of geographic pictures of lakes, deserts, and forests. One set for each student. (See attached) Pencils Bubble Map (three for each student and three for the teacher) E. Objectives: o NV State Social Studies Standards o G6.1.1- Sort and group pictures displaying geographic features, e.g. forests, deserts, lake regions. G6.1.1-I can sort pictures into groups by geographic features of lakes regions, forests, and deserts.

Student-Friendly Standards

F. Vocabulary Feature- part of something just like the nose and eyes are a feature of your face. Desert-a very dry, sandy area with few or no plants growing in it. Lake-fresh or salt water that is surrounded on all sides by land. Forest-a large area of land covered with many trees and other plants.

G. Procedure:
Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 2

Lesson Plan for Wednesday

Strand: Geography

submitted by: Michele Stering

1. Warm up-Hang the maps from Mondays lesson and as a group discuss the following questions: Have students come up to the maps to point out ideas and examples What types of things did you learn about maps with our quest speaker? Can you point out some pictures and tell us what they mean? Who can show us how to tell the difference between land and water? 2. Introduce Vocabulary: feature, desert, lake, and forest 3. Identify and discuss: Read aloud using the text book to show pictures of a lake, desert, and forest. Ask students to describe what they see in the pictures for each geographic feature. Use vocabulary words to discuss ideas. Write answers using bubble map for each feature. 4. Guided Instruction: Students will first watch as I model how to sort a few of the pictures in each of my bubble map features: lake, desert, forest. As a whole class, we will sort the rest of my pictures into the proper feature group and write a few descriptive words in the remaining bubbles. For example: dry, wet, green, sandy, bark, fish. 5. Independent activity: Working individually, the students will sort their feature pictures into the correct feature group along with some key words. H. Assessment: What will you use to measure student understanding? Working individually, the students will sort their feature pictures into the correct feature group and include some key words. Explain how you will know students understand the concepts from the lesson. Students must Sort and group pictures displaying geographic features, e.g. forests, deserts, lake regions. Having students sort authentic pictures of geographic features will show if students understand the differences in Earths geography. I. Closure: Question: Ask students to write about which geographic feature they liked the most and why?

J. Reflection: 1. Which part of the lesson do you think will be the easiest for you to teach? I think the sorting activity will be easiest because students will look at it as a game. By using guided instruction, I can provide explicit instructions for how to complete the bubble maps. 2. Which part will be most challenging for you to teach? I think the textbook will be challenging to make sure I put the information into age appropriate language. This book is geared for older students, but I think the books illustrations are very kid friendly and will give them the best visuals of geographic features.
Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 3

Lesson Plan for Wednesday

Strand: Geography

submitted by: Michele Stering

3. How will you follow up or extend this lesson? I plan on using the geographic features as an extension of my unit plan. These geographic features play a role in why people migrate to different locations which will be addressed in Fridays lesson about resources. 4. What can you do for students who dont grasp the concepts? Students might have a hard time with understanding the concept of features. I will give opportunities for students to make connections with this idea. For example, the features of a face, the feature of a bike is the wheel, etc. 5. Which part of the lesson, if any, do you think might need to change? If students are having a hard time sorting some of the pictures, then I might need to take a look at changing them out to clear up any confusion or work with in partners groups. 6. When you were writing this lesson plan, what was the most difficult part? Finding a variety of pictures for students to sort which are age appropriate for first grader students.

Nevada State College

EDEL 453 - Spring 2014

Karen Powell- Instructor

page 4

Lesson Plan for Wednesday

Strand: Geography

submitted by: Michele Stering

Bubble Map

Sorting Picture Examples:

Nevada State College

EDEL 453 - Spring 2014

Karen Powell- Instructor

page 5

Lesson Plan for Wednesday

Strand: Geography

submitted by: Michele Stering

Nevada State College

EDEL 453 - Spring 2014

Karen Powell- Instructor

page 6