Download Identify geographical features in their local region (eg, deserts

Regions in California
The Golden
State
Grade Level : 3rd
Name: Luis Topete
Imperial Teaching American History
June 2011
Teacher Objectives
Standard 3.1.1: Students describe the
physical and human geography and use of
maps, tables, graphs, photographs, and
charts to organize information about
people, places, and environments in a
spatial context.
Lesson Objective 3.1: Identify geographical
features in their local region (e.g., deserts,
mountains, valleys, hills, coastal areas,
oceans, lakes).
(S) Friendly Objective
I will locate and describe key features of California’s 4
main land regions and create an informational brochure
describing my groups assigned region.
Preteach
*(T) will pose the Q: Where do you live?
*(T) will pose a series of yes or no q’s (e.g.,
Is there a mountain in your region?
River?)
*(T) will utilize a map to illustrate features
on the map.
Prerequisite Voc.
region (n.) a large land area that has similar
features
geography (n.) the surface features of a place
Mapping Vocabulary
(T) will introduce the key terms: region, desert,
coast, mountain, & valley with a word web.
valley
desert
coast
region
moutain
Delivering the Lesson
Utilizing a map the (T) will locate and describe
California’s 4 main land regions- desert, coast, mountain,
and valley.
(T) will locate and describe features of California’s 4 main
land regions
Lesson Content
The desert region has many flat, low areas. Summers
are hot and dry, and winters can be cold. Some plant
life grows here even though there is little water.
Lesson Content Cont.
The coast includes areas with good soil for farming.
Cliffs, sand dunes, large hills, wetlands, marshy areas,
and beaches are also found in the coast area. Our
famous redwood trees also grow in this area.
Lesson Content Cont.
The mountain region includes lakes, large forests and
many state & national parks (Yosemite). Much of CA
drinking water comes from this region.
Lesson Content Cont.
The valley region includes abundant water from rivers
(San Joaquin & Sacramento). The fertile soil and warm
climate had made it one of the world’s richest
agricultural regions (producing many of the fruits and
vegetables that we eat)
Meaningful Interaction
(T) will show (S) images of objects. Students will need to
match the particular object to its corresponding region
(e.g., an image of a beach ball corresponds to the coast,
Yoshua tree to a desert, water bottle to the mountain,
fruits and vegetables to the valley region).
Guided Practice
(T) will pose the following q’s:
Why do you think the beach ball corresponds to the
coast region?
The water bottle image corresponds to the mountain
region. What other region do you believe the water
bottle image may also correspond to?
Compare and contrast the major features of the
mountain region and valley region (Alike: both have
water. Different: valleys are low and flat; mountains are
high and uneven).
Cooperative Learning
Utilizing cooperative learning, the (T) will organize (S)
into four groups and assign one CA region to each group.
(T) will have groups research their region and ask them
to develop a brochure with information outlining its key
features (i.e., accurate facts, title cover, inside & ending
flaps, appropriate grammar and spelling, graphics
correspond to text and include good balance of text and
graphics, a minimum of 5 sources, well organized,
appealing to the reader, and documented evidence of 4
editors (2 adults 2 students).
Assessment
(T) will have groups research their region and ask
them to develop a brochure with information outlining
its key features (i.e., accurate facts, title cover, inside &
ending flaps, appropriate grammar and spelling,
graphics correspond to text and include good balance
of text and graphics, a minimum of 5 sources, well
organized, appealing to the reader, and documented
evidence of 4 editors (2 adults 2 students).
Closure
(T) will sum up the lesson w/ the following questions:
Based on the knowledge you’ve acquired about
California’s four main regions, which region would you
prefer to live in? Why?
Universal Access
For extra support, the (T) will show 4 mini-interactive
videos (from the curriculum website Scott Foresman)
and lead a discussion while pausing (chunking) the info.
covered in the videos.
As an extension, the (T) will challenge (S) to identify
resources that are found in each region (e.g. forests &
water in the mountains, geothermal energy & heat from
the sun in the desert, fish and oranges in the coast, and
fruits & vegetables in the valley).
Bibliography
History-Social Science For California Our
Communities Teacher’s Edition,2006, Scott
Foresman, Glenview, Illinois. pp. T1-T7.