Lesson Plan for Monday Strand: Geography Submitted by: Zachary Haro

Unit Plan: Map Concepts and Analysis

Lesson Plan for Monday
Grade: 5
th

Social Studies Strand: Geography
Submitted By: Zachary Haro


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

Lesson Plan for Monday Strand: Geography Submitted by: Zachary Haro
B. Summary of the Lesson Plan:
This lesson will cover landforms and other physical features of the United States as well
as how and why the climate changes throughout the U.S. It will cover pages 6-9 in the
Houghton Mifflin 5
th
Grade Social Studies texbook.
C. Basic Information:
Grade Level: 5th grade
Time to Complete this Lesson: 50 minutes
Groupings: Whole group, individual, pairs
D. Materials:
Vocabulary Cards

Note Cards
Social Studies Journals
SMARTboard
Lesson Plan for Monday Strand: Geography Submitted by: Zachary Haro
Social Studies Text Book

E. Objectives:
o NV State Social Studies Standards
G5.5.1 Identify and locate major geographic features in Nevada
and the United States using maps and map elements
G5.5.6 Derive geographic information from photographs, maps,
graphs, books, and technological resources.
o Student-Friendly Standards
Students will be able to describe landforms and other physical
features of the United States using maps.
Students will learn to explain how and why climate is different
throughout the United States.
Students will be able to get information on geography from maps
and pictures in the textbook.
F. Vocabulary
Landform a feature on the surface of the land; i.e. mountain, valley, plain
Geography the study of the world and the people and things that live there
Plateau high, steep-sided area rising above the surrounding land
Climate the type of weather a place has over a long period of time
Lesson Plan for Monday Strand: Geography Submitted by: Zachary Haro
Equator the imaginary line around the middle of the Earth that divides the
Northern and Southern hemispheres
G. Procedure:
1. Warm-up: Ask students to describe the land where they live in their social studies
journals. Ask them to describe a place they know about or have visited that has
very different land. After 5 minutes ask a few students to share what they have
written and explain that our country is made up of land that varies from place to
place.
2. Ask students to take out their social studies textbooks and skim through pages 6-9
and look at the pictures and ask them what they think the lesson is about.
3. Go over the 5 vocabulary words before reading the section, give students time to
write the words and the definitions down on their vocabulary cards.
Tell students the prefix geo- in geography refers to the Earth
Tell them a good way to remember the word equator is to think of the
word equal as the equator divides the Earth into two equal parts.
4. Have students read the first section A Varied Land in a popcorn fashion switching
every 2 sentences. Stop at the first vocabulary word and have students repeat it's
definition before continuing. At the end of the first section, ask the class What
questions to geographers ask?
5. Have students look over the map on page 7 and have them answer the questions:
What physical feature runs from Maine to Georgia and Alabama?
The Appalachian Mountains
Which plains run along the Gulf of Mexico?
The Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plains
6. Have a student read the first two paragraphs on page 8, then stop to remind them
that a synonym for the word form is shape so landforms are 'shapes of land.'
7. Have students continue to read popcorn style until the bottom of the first column
on page 8 then remind them that the word plateau comes from the Middle French
word for platter. Also pose the question
By what processes are canyons formed?
They are formed when rivers flowing over plateaus wear away the
rock and cut long, deep gaps into the earth.
8. Read the rest of page 8 popcorn style and stop to direct students to look at the
picture and caption on the bottom of page 8.
Lesson Plan for Monday Strand: Geography Submitted by: Zachary Haro
9. Before moving to page 9, have students create a picture dictionary of landforms
using their note cards that include a lake, mountain, a desert, an island, and a
plain. Tell students to label each picture with the word it illustrates.
10. After students finish their picture dictionaries, call on 10 different students to come
up to a map of North America on the SMARTboard and locate and label the
geographic features mentioned in the text, including bodies of water, countries,
lakes, rivers, mountains, deserts, and plains. Have students follow along with the
map in their books on page 7.
11. Move on to page 9 and read popcorn style until the end of the first paragraph and
remind students that climate and weather do not mean the same thing. Weather
describes daily changing conditions, while climate describes the conditions in a
place over time.
12. Read the rest of the section popcorn style and pose the question
In what way is climate different in the northern and southern states?
Why?
Southern states tend to be warmer because they're closer to the
equator
13. Have students do the Lesson Review questions 1-5 on page 9 and the two
assessment questions that involve landforms and labeling a map. (See assessment
section of lesson plan)
14. For closure have students take turns reading the lesson summary and have them
copy it and the Why it matters... at the bottom of the page into their journals.
H. Assessment:
What will you use to measure student understanding?
Lesson Review questions 1-5 on Page 9
What are three examples of landforms in the U.S.?
Where are your three landforms located on the map?
Lesson Plan for Monday Strand: Geography Submitted by: Zachary Haro

Explain how you will know students understand the concepts from the lesson.
If students can list different landforms, locate them on an unlabeled map, and tell
how the climate of a region can be determined based off it's distance from the
equator, then I can assume that my students have understood the concepts from
the lesson.
I. Closure:
For closure have students take turns reading the lesson summary bullet points and
have them copy it and the Why it matters... at the bottom of the page into their
journals.
J. Reflection:
1. Which part of the lesson do you think will be the easiest for you to teach?
I think the whole lesson will be easy to teach considering all of my resources and
information needed to teach the lesson are in the teacher edition of the text
book.
2. Which part will be most challenging for you to teach?
If I had to say one part might be challenging, it would be the concept of how a
regions distance from the equator determines it's climate.
3. How will you follow up or extend this lesson?
I will follow up this lesson the next day by having students label a physical map
of the US with the different geographic features.
4. What can you do for students who dont grasp the concepts?
I can do more of the leveled practice and extra activities for the lesson in the
teacher's edition. I can go through the vocabulary more thoroughly and try to
help that student make more meaningful connections in order to understand.
5. Which part of the lesson, if any, do you think might need to change?
I don't see anything in the lesson that I would change, I think I addressed more
than one kind of learner with the activities I chose, I might need to include a
small group or pairs activity though.
6. When you were writing this lesson plan, what was the most difficult part?
The most difficult part would have been trying to pick which activities to use
and not to use to stay within the 50 minute limit for the lesson. Also picking the
Lesson Plan for Monday Strand: Geography Submitted by: Zachary Haro
activities that I thought would be more useful than the others was difficult
because they were all pretty useful.