This kindergarten inquiry leads students through an investigation of maps and globes as tools that represent the physical world in different ways. In the inquiry, students consider how each tool represents locations, what purposes each tool serves, and what advantages and disadvantages each tool offers.

In this lesson, students gain an understanding of the relationship between their community and the world.

This interactive map of North America contains links to country maps which provide information such as, population, flag, language, capital, industry, and agriculture.

This interactive map of the North Pole contains links to country maps which provide information such as, population, flag, language, capital, industry, and agriculture.

In this multiday lesson, kindergarten students learn about the physical characteristics of their community as an introduction to map skills. Students will partcipate in a variety of activities including a whole group discussion using a PPT, centers, a rebus story, and a neighborhood walk. This lesson also includes clip art and student handouts.

Students will observe, record, and compare the amount of the earth's surface covered by land and by water. They will also discuss the difference between fresh and salt water.

This interactive map of South America contains links to country maps which provide information such as, population, flag, language, capital, industry, and agriculture.

Students will be able to describe the ocean based on information presented in class, learn the basic geography of the oceans, recall information they learned while listening to stories and poems with oceanic settings, research various forms of sea life, and understand the elements of poems and stories written about the ocean.

In this lesson, students listen to a story, then either draw a picture or write a new story about the benefits of trees and differing points of views about trees. Students then create a rhyme or song about how the trees make them feel. Finally, students consider how trees in rural forests are beneficial by comparing illustrations representing a tree in an urban forest and a tree in a rural forest.

In this unit, students will work on their maps reading skills and learn about their local geography.