When I was in 5th grade, I so clearly remember round robin reading in my textbook about mesas, buttes, etc and wanting to be anywhere but there. It was hard to stay awake.

Make landforms fun!

We have to cover landforms, but make it fun.

Get some playdough and allow students to create the different landforms at their desks while reading about them.

Get silly – Who can create the most interesting plateau? Allow students to decorate their landforms with pom poms, macaroni, glitter, whatever you have on hand.

Another idea is to give students large sheets of construction paper and have them sketch several landforms. Then, they’ll practice map keys by coloring the landforms different colors and marking them in the map key.

Give students hands-on practice with important geography terms!

Students should be given opportunities to practice different types of maps, latitude, longitude, relative location, absolute location, the compass rose, and the map key/legend.

The no-prep way to do this is to use these two resources:

Make lots of maps!

The only way to get better at reading maps is to make maps.

There are so many varied ways to make maps.

You can make classroom maps, school maps, neighborhood maps, pretend maps of fictional places, and real maps showing the placement of stores in a nearby shopping center.

Touch on aspects of human geography!

Human geography is defined as “the branch of geography dealing with how human activity affects or is influenced by the earth’s surface.”

Google Earth is great for this. Geography becomes relevant when you actually talk about the people there.

When you teach about continents, talk about one country or people group per continent, even do a Google Earth tour!

Assign a project that boosts creativity AND reviews geography skills!

Practice maps by creating a pretend country and making several different types of maps.

Have students create a variety of maps for their pretend country, i.e. political, physical, product/resource, climate, and etc.

If you’d like to keep this post for later, simply save this pin to your teacher board!

The post How to Make Geography Skills Relevant and Fun appeared first on Thrive in Grade Five.

In this free guide, I’ll give you my best advice for teaching the Constitution. Grab it here:

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• Constitution Day Activities for 5th Graders

The post U.S. Constitution Teacher’s Guide appeared first on Thrive in Grade Five.

Most of our students know the basic concepts of continents and oceans because they’ve learned them in earlier school years.

However, I always find that there are some gaps that I need to remediate for my students.

I find it beneficial (and fun) to do a quick, zoom-by review of continents and oceans so that everyone is on the same page before we move into latitude and longitude, types of maps, and etc.

Ready-to-Use Resources to Teach Continents and Oceans

Vocabulary / Concepts to Review

Students need to know that continents are large landmasses.

We all know what oceans are, but can we really comprehend the vastness of the oceans, or that more than 70% of Earth is covered by oceans?

What are hemispheres? Hemispheres are halves of the Earth. I recommend taking a styrofoam ball and cutting it in half in front of students. You can use this ball to show them the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, along with the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Students need to know that the Equator is the dividing line for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, while the Prime Meridian is the dividing line for the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.

Students need to know the difference between absolute location and relative location. Absolute location is an exact location on the Earth, like we see with latitude/longitude points or street addresses. Relative location is a location based on where other places are located. For example, the gas station is to the north of the school.

The compass rose can be simple and contain directions North, South, East, and West. What you’ll find with upper elementary resources, however, is that the compass rose will contain intermediate directions, like Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, and Southwest.

What makes each continent unique? 

While my students come in (usually) having a decent understanding of continents and oceans, I like to add a little something.

We briefly touch on culture, climate, and/or what makes each continent special. I know that middle school students will have a full class on geography and culture of each continent, but I think my students are better able to remember and make connections when they know at least a little about why each continent is unique. 

North America – Of course, this is where we live. This continent includes all major biomes (aquatic, grassland, forest, desert and tundra).

South America – The Andes mountains are world’s longest mountain range.

Australia – 90% of Australians live on the coast.

Africa – This continent contains Earth’s longest river, the Nile.

Europe – Denmark has the oldest monarchy in Europe.

Asia – 60% of the world’s population lives in Asia.

Antarctica – This continent is not part of any time zone – visitors adhere to their time zone of origin.

Fun Ideas for Reviewing Continents & Oceans

1. Don’t underestimate the power of coloring. Provide a World Map. Give directions, like color Antarctica purple. Label each ocean. This resource includes a World Map with instructions for coloring and labeling: Continents Mini-Unit

2. Have students plan a cruise around the world. Give students a World Map and tell them they must plan a trip and show dots for their route. They’ll need to include the features for each continent, like in Australia, they want to see the Great Barrier Reef and dance with kangaroos. Students must refer to relative and absolute location in describing their route around the world.

3.Ask each student to make an “I’m thinking of” quiz. Examples: I’m thinking of the ocean that is to the west of North America. I’m thinking of the continent that contains coordinates of 50 degrees north, 75 degrees west. I’m thinking of the ocean that lies at the intersection of the equator and 30 degrees west. 

Ready-to-Use Resources to Teach Continents and Oceans

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