Geography

Grade Level: 3rd Grade

Subject: Social Studies 

Time Frame: 8 weeks (January-March)

​

Big Understandings

​

- use geographic tools to develop spatial thinking
- the concept of region is developed through an examination of similarities and differences in places and communities 

​

Essential Questions

​

- what questions do geographers ask?
- how does the geography of where we live influence how we live?
- how do physical features provide opportunities and challenges to regions?
- how have the cultural experiences of groups in different regions influenced practices regarding the local environment?
- are regions in the world more similar or different? 
- why do people describe regions using human or physical characteristics?
- what are geographic characteristics of a region?
- how do cultures lead to similarities and differences between regions?

​

​

By the end of the unit, students will be able to:

​

- read and interpret information from geographic tools and formulate geographic questions
- locate oceans and continents, major countries, bodies of water, mountains, urban areas, the state of Colorado, and neighboring states on maps
- describe the natural and man-made features of a specific area on a map
- identify geography-based problems and examine the ways that people have tried to solve them
- observe and describe the physical, cultural, and human-made characteristics of a local region (the Eastern plains, San Luis Valley, Pikes Peak, Northwest, Front Range, South Central, Southwest, and Western Slope)
- identify the factors that make a region unique (cultural diversity, industry and agriculture, and landforms)
- give examples of places that are similar and different from a local region
- characterize regions using different types of features such as physical, political, cultural, urban, and rural attributes 

​

Topics:

​

◦ 5 themes of geography
◦ physical geography- in general
◦ landforms
◦ identify oceans, continents, major countries, bodies of water on a map
◦ define physical geography
◦ define human geography
◦ compare human and physical geography

​

Standards

SS.3.2.1
SS.3.2.2