Download File

Lesson Plan by: Allison Ponce & Maggie McCartney
Time for Landfunmations!
Objective: Develop and build on students’ understanding of the landforms. Introduce
vocabulary that relates and identifies each landforms unique characteristics.
Grade: 2nd
Materials: Trade book Mountain Dance by Thomas Locker
Handouts
Landform PowerPoint
Candy (that resembles landforms)
Five colors of Play-doh
Process Standards:
S.IP.02.11 Make purposeful observation of the natural world using the appropriate senses.
S.IA.02.13 Communicate and present findings of observations.
S.RS.02.11 Demonstrate scientific concepts through various illustrations, performances,
models, exhibits, and activities.
Content Standards:
E.SE.02.21 Describe the major landforms of the surface of the Earth (mountains, plains,
plateaus, valleys, hills).
Engage:
Begin the lesson with reading trade book Mountain Dance by Thomas Locker. This
book will be used to introduce students to the lesson by displaying magnificent pictures and
presenting relevant vocabulary of landforms.
After reading Mountain Dance the teacher will assign the students into groups of
five, being sure to group students at different skill levels together. Groups will be presented
with 5 pictures ,one of each basic landforms being studied. The teacher will ask the class to
make observations and then circle the words underneath the picture that describe what
they are seeing. Each member of the group will have one of the picture handouts and will
be responsible for circling the descriptive words the group decides on with a purple marker.
Once each group is finished circling the words for each five landforms they will discuss
their choices as a class and discuss the differences and similarities among these pictures,
particularly physical features.
Explore:
After students have exercised their abilities to make observations of key characteristics
they are going to learn how to use those observation to describe and identify landforms.
Teacher will present the class with a PowerPoint of 5 slides; each slide is a picture of one
landform, the same picture that they were observing in the engage. The teacher will ask the
class if they can identify what landform is being displayed on the projector. Students may
shout out their answers and once they are given time to make their predictions the teacher
will reveal the landform’s name. After each landform has been identified a descriptive
sentence of the landform will be revealed on the PowerPoint and read together as a class.
Each group member will be asked to write the descriptive sentence that goes with the
landform they have from the engage sheet (each student will write out one of the landform
descriptive sentences). The descriptive sentences will include key words from the engage
activity. Students will be given a chance to look over their picture handouts and circle any
additional words and make any changes with a green marker. Using different color markers
will allow the teacher to assess the student’s prior knowledge and current understanding
after going over the PowerPoints.
The students will then be instructed to open a bag of candy that has been passed out
to each group (noting careful instructions that it is not the time for students to eat the
candy). Once students have opened the bags they will be asked to select a candy that best
resembles each landform. Students will have to construct a valley using a few pieces of
candy. The class will discuss each selection.
Equipped with the new knowledge on how to define and identify the physical
features of the landforms students will be given the opportunity to make their own
landform using play dough. Students are going to work in the same groups of five. Each
student will have their own color of play-dough; each color will be assigned to make a
different landform. Each group of five will have their own landscape which will include all
five landforms. Teacher will guide students by encouraging them to work together as a
group and ask each other questions.
Explain:
The teacher will go around to every group asking each member to identify and explain
their landform. Looking for students to use key descriptive words that connect to their
landforms and how they were built. The teacher will also note that the valley landform was
placed in a proper location. Play-dough landscapes will be put on display in the classroom.
Scientific Background for Teachers:
Landforms are natural features of earth’s landscape. Landforms can be developed in
a number of different ways. Some are formed from the movement of the earth due to plate
tectonics, others form from deposition of materials, and some from as a result of erosion
and weathering of the earth’s surface.
A mountain is the tallest of all landforms and its formation can be explained using
the theory of plate tectonics. There are a number of ways mountains can be formed. The
building or formation of some mountains occur at convergent plate boundaries, where the
oceanic plate and another plate that’s edge is along a continental crust are converging. At
these locations the subduction of oceanic lithosphere initiates melting of the mantle rock.
This partial melting of the mantle rock provides the source of magma that moves upward.
The thick continental crust block the magma from ascending to the surface but the magma
still forms plutons and the earth’s surface is uplifted from the magma. Folded mountains
are another type that form when two continental plates are pushing against each other. The
plates have no where else to move but up creating mountains over a long period of time.
Also it is possible for subduction to occur between the two continental plates resulting in
folded mountains. Fault-block mountains form from another plate tectonic process called
continental rifting. An extreme amount of stress within and between the plates leads fault
line or cracks of the earth’s surface. These fault lines uplift to the formation of these type of
mountains.
A hill is a elevated area of the earth’s surface not at the extreme elevation of a
mountain. The formation of a hill comes from glaciation and erosion. The sediment left
behind by glaciers formed hills that can be seen today. Some examples of these types of hills
would be drumlin and moraines. Erosion also forms hills by disturbing the earth surface
resulting in a hill.
A plain is a long stretch of land with hardly any change in elevation, very flat. There
are multiple ways plains form that make up what type of plain they are. A floodplain forms
from melting snow or heavy rain that cause rivers to flood beyond their banks. As the
waters spreads out into the surrounding area it drops the sediment that would normaly
flow down stream. This sediment over thousands of years then makes up the floodplains.
Alluvial plains can be found when steep mountain valley rivers rushing waters flow out into
level land causing the rivers to overflow their banks spreading out their sediment like a fan.
Coastal plains are flat low land that are separated from oceans by highland features like
mountains. The submerged portion of coastal plains are considered the continental self.
A valley is a surface depression of the earth surrounded by hills or mountains; a
natural trough in the earth's surface, which slopes down to a body of water, formed by
water and/or ice erosion. Systems of valleys extend through plains, hills, and mountains.
Erosion by rivers is a main valley-forming process. The rate at which a river
deepens its valley depends on several factors. One factor is how fast the water is going
down a channel. The water will generally reach a maximum at the point where the slope is
steep. Another factor is the resistance of material where the river channel is cutting. As a
channel cuts down a valley floor, erosion carries soil and sediment down the valley slopes
toward the channel. A river can remove all the material supplied easily, from the slopes and
from upstream. It can continue to cut deeper into the bed and increase the steepness of the
sides. If material can be supplied to the channel faster than it can be carried away, then the
excess material accumulates on the valley floor. Steep sided valleys are often found in young
mountain areas where the land is still being lifted to create mountains. Steep sided valleys
occur because the uplift tends to increase the channel slope, which in turn causes the river
to cut more rapidly into its bed.
Valleys can be formed by glacial erosion. Streams create their own valleys while
glaciers follow the course of existing stream valleys. Before glaciation; mountain valleys are
narrow and V-shaped because streams are well above base level and therefore downcutting
(downward erosion). During glaciation narrow valleys undergo transformation as the
glacier widens and deepens them creating a U-shaped. An alpine glacier that fills a valley is
sometimes called a valley glacier.
Plateaus are sculpted by geologic forces that lift them up and the wind and rain that
wear them down. Plateaus are built over millions of years as pieces of Earth's crust collide
into each other, melt, and gurgle back toward the surface. Some owe their formation to a
single process; others have been subjected to more than one.
Many plateaus form as magma deep inside the Earth pushes toward the surface but
fails to break through the crust. Instead, the magma lifts up the flat, large impenetrable rock
above it. Repeated lava flows that spill out from cracks in the ground and spread out over
hundreds of square miles can also slowly build up massive plateaus.
Plateaus also form in the ocean. Mantle plumes generate several large oceanic
plateaus that resemble the flood of basalt provinces found on land. These plateaus can form
from vast outpourings of fluid basaltic lavas onto the ocean floor. Oceanic plateaus are
composed mostly of pillow basalt and other mafic rocks. Other plateaus are created over
time as wind and rain wear away the side of an uplifted region, giving it geographic
distinction from the surrounding terrain. Water is the greatest erosive force on plateaus.
Elaborate:
Arts will be brought into the lesson through a dramatic activity. Students are put
into new groups based on the color of play-dough they used. The new groups will be
assigned a landform that only their group knows about. Students will be instructed to come
up with a tableau, a still scene where they represents their landform. Students will have
time to come up with a pose and be able to use teacher as a resource if needed. Once
everyone is ready each group will come to the front of the class and present their landform
tableau, while the rest of the class guesses which landform they are depicting.
Evaluate:
Students will complete a worksheet independently, giving the teacher a chance to assess
the student individually. The worksheet will ask students to draw a picture of the
landform the box is label for. Then below that box fill in the blanks of the sentence that
identifies and describes that particular landform. The sentence will be the same one they
were presented in the PowerPoint.
(((The final assessment students will have to match landforms with their correct pictures
and descriptive sentences. Demonstrates student’s ability to identify landforms based on
their physical features and also from descriptive key characteristics .)))
Scientific Background Sources:
http://www.edu.pe.ca/southernkings/landforms.htm
http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/earth/surface-of-the-earth/
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Landform_development
Tarbuck E.J. & Lutgens F. K. (2005). Earth An Introduction to Physical Geology Eight
Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey Pearson Education, Inc.