Students will illustrate how the use, conservation or depletion of natural resources affects an area. They will also show how people "return to nature" hoping to find inspiration that will help them cope with the stresses of their everyday lives.

This lesson has two components: 1) a fluency list of poverty words and 2) a world map of poverty cases. In the first component the teacher introduces a list of poverty words organized by part of speech that will be learned and practiced during this lesson. Fluency practice continues to occur throughout the unit in both the reading fiction and non-fiction components. Being able to read content vocabulary words, phrases and sentences fluently is so important in a student’s ability to comprehend complex texts and issues. Providing students with ample time and opportunities to practice academic language directly from their texts will allow this to occur (Rasinski "Fluency Matters" 2014). In the second component a large world map is used to investigate the issue of poverty by comparing the effects of poverty of people in 6/7 continents. Students will engage in speaking and writing tasks using the world map. This lesson was developed by Karie Gregory as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

This lesson will address the physical and human characteristics of the local community. Students will build geographic vocabulary as well as use map skills.

Students explore the characteristics of the physical environment of communities, including their own community, in order to describe and explain variations in the physical environment, including climate, landforms, natural resources, and natural hazards. They also explore these characteristics to identify and compare how people in different communities adapt to the physical environment in which they live. Students also look at excerpts from the journals of Christopher Columbus, whose journeys “opened”the New World to further exploration and settlement, to see how he described the physical environment of the islands where he landed.

In this lesson, students practice using map elements to study location, distance, and directions and create maps of the local community, comparing differences in human characteristics in rural and urban communities.

Students identify places in their local communities that are important to them. They use mental maps to analyze those places and how their personal experiences affect how they value those places.

For this activity, students find the riddle to match the picture of each landform.

This resource contains lyrics to a song about landforms. Click the listen button to hear the melody of the song.

In this lesson, student groups research an established coastal community. After locating it on a map, they will find out about its geography, cultural climate, and typical architecture. Students will make a detailed drawing of the coastal community and write a paragraph to accompany their artwork.

Students prepare a news report that highlights problems facing coastal communities and how climate change might affect coastal populations.

Students research political, physical, and cultural features of their own state or district and work collaboratively to create a state tourism map.

Students practice using map elements to study location, distance, and directions and create maps of the local community, comparing differences in human characteristics in rural and urban communities.

The NC Kids' Exploration Journals are a fun educational tool to help youth explore their communities and natural surroundings! Each journal contains: 18 multidisciplinary activities with guided prompts, 6 lined journal pages for recording observations and reflections, and 4 blank pages for individual creativity.

The digital versions of the journal are designed to be printed out for students either as individual activities or in its entirety so that they can explore their school yard, local park, or own backyard. Though designed for 1st - 5th-graders, older audiences may enjoy them too! They are also available in both English and Spanish languages.

While supplies last, hard copies of the journals are currently available for free to teachers by contacting karen.ipock@ncdcr.gov.

Students explore the characteristics of the physical environment of communities, including their own community, in order to describe and explain variations in the physical environment, including climate, landforms, natural resources, and natural hazards. They also explore these characteristics to identify and compare how people in different communities adapt to the physical environment in which they live. They also look at the journals of Christopher Columbus.

In this lesson, students will look at highway maps to draw conclusions about the growth of towns and cities in the state over time.

The teacher will introduce to students the idea that different places vary, grow and change over time, partly because of human beliefs and actions and partly because of physical characteristics. Then the teacher will work with higher-level students to research several different communities around the world. They will work with the teacher to find contacts for other school children so that all students in the class may Skype to learn more about different communities around the world and how changes have taken place due to human and natural causes. Lastly, the students will create an Excel spreadsheet to list different categories of the environment that have been influenced by human and environmental causes. After Skyping with people in several different communities, higher-level students will create the spreadsheet with their own community and several other communities and the categories so they may easily compare/contrast the physical and human characteristics of each. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

In this interactive, students learn about landforms and how they are created. Students can view a slideshow, take a quiz, and sing karaoke.

In this activity, students use a story map to follow the historic route of the Buncombe Turnpike and learn more about its economic and cultural impact on western North Carolina. Students will also see how the landscape has transformed in the nearly 200 years since the creation of the Turnpike.

This resource provides a listing of the types of landforms and their definitions. Each definition is a link to additional information about each landform.

For this resource, students make their own USA by demonstrating their understanding of the locations of the major physical features of the United States.