Social Studies Skills: Students will demonstrate an understanding of historical and current events using chronological and spatial thinking, develop historical interpretations, and frame questions that include collecting and evaluating information from primary and secondary sources.

• Find, interpret, and apply information from primary and secondary sources including pictures, graphics, maps, atlases, artifacts, and timelines.

• Describe and classify physical and human-made features of places and regions.

• identify map elements.
• use pictures to identify physical features located in the U.S.
• use pictures to identify human-made features located in the U.S.
• locate physical and human-made features on a U.S. map

• landforms and bodies of water

• modifications people have made to the land

Note: Before beginning this lesson you may want to cut out pictures and definition cards from handout, "Physical and Human-made Features" for use in the closure activity and place them in envelopes. You will need one set of pictures and definitions for each group of four students. You could also have students cut out the cards.

1. Show the students a globe and ask them what two things make up the surface of the Earth (land and water). Explain that the surface of our planet also has smaller pieces of land and bodies of water and that these are called physical or natural features. Write the term "Physical Features" on the board. Ask students to identify physical features (mountain, lake, valley, hill, ocean, river, etc.)

2. Write the term " human-made features" on the board and explain that human-made features are modifications people have made to the land. Have students name human-made features (bridge, building, tunnel, street, etc.)

3. Read the book, America the Beautiful, to the students.

Foldout Book Activity

1. Give each student a sentence strip and the handout, "America the Beautiful" (Acrobat 329k). Instruct students to cut out pictures.

2. Have the students sing the song, "America the Beautiful."

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

4. Give each student a 3" x 24" sentence strip. Next, tell students that they are going to use a ruler to measure the sentence strip. Tell students to mark the sentence strip every 3 1/2". Now tell students to fold their sentence strip on the first mark. Next, they are to fold the sentence strip backward on the second mark. Tell students to fold the strip back and forth to make a foldout book. Students should continue doing this until the end of the strip. At the end, they will have one fold that is only 2" wide.

5. Instruct students to paste the pictures in the order below spacing them neatly on the sentence strip. When students have completed pasting their pictures on one side of the sentence strip they should turn it over and continue on the other side. On the 2" fold they are to paste the title box.

2. Tell students to choose one of the pictures and write a paragraph describing this place as a setting for a story.

Print Version of Worksheet (Acrobat 364k)