Let's explore what Geography is all about! Geography is the study of the Earth. The study is divided into five themes such as Location, Place, Human/environmental interaction, Movement, and Region. Each of these five places is different from one another. So, you are probably wondering why geography is super important. Geography does a number of things. There are four important points why geography is important.
1. Geography helps students answer the four questions children are curious and ask: What is it? Why is it there? Where is it? What is the significance of its location?
2. Geography helps students understand important connections between the physical and human systems & how they interact on the surface of the Earth.
3. Students are able to practice critical thinking skills about the distribution and different arrangments of people, places, events. Children are able to see the importance and connect their knowledge to the world.
4. Geography mainly captures the imagination of students through a focus on exploration and adventure from different perspectives & media.
"It's not just learning which way is North, South, East, & West. Or the scale of the map. Geography is the world and all that is in it"
This is a wonderful quote from a video from Chapter 13 of the text. Click here to watch!
What is Geo-Literacy?
According to Daniel Edelson students need to be geographically literate to make decisions. It is the understanding of the skills that are necessary to make these decisions.There are three components of geo-literacy.
- Understanding human & natural systems
- Geographic reasoning
- Systematic decision making
There are 5 Major Themes of Geography.
1. Location
2.Place
3.Human & environment interaction
4.Movement
5.Regions
There are wonderful activities you can have your students involved in.
Activites you can include in your elementary classroom!
Location: Design a country, literature around the world, map puzzles, create an atlas.
Place: ABC book of your community, say hello in different languages, collect dirt, create a postage stamp or postcard, or a weather report.
Human/ Environment Interaction: Read aloud The Lorax to teach students about human interaction, collect your town's growing population, have students identify their wants and needs, collect pictures of your town over 10 years.
Movement: The products we use, commuter graph, roots of their family, interview community elders, license plates from all around.
Regions: Map your school region, time zones, bingo, regions in your community & cultural regions.
There are different tools and analytical concepts for teaching Geography.
technology, maps, scale, change, diversity, models, systems.
There are two beautiful well -known songs you can incorporate when teaching geography. This will engage students and keep them involved.
Geography should be interactive and concrete. They should participate in experiences that will be most familiar to them. Some examples of having students participate in experiences are, neighborhood map art project, interactive geography games, picture books, virtual field trips, building maps, bring Flat Stanley into the classroom! These are all fun interactive experiences for children to be involved in and learn more about geography!
After viewing the power point 103 creatively simple ways to teach Geography I chose 3 ways I'd like to teach Geography in my future classroom. The first way I'd love to teach geography in the classroom is through clay models. I would love have students create clay models with physcial features with plasticine. As a child, I loved working with clay. It was always engaging and fun!
Another fun way I'd teach geography in the classroom would be through a Landscape in a Box. A landscape in a box allows students to be creative while learning.
The next way I'd like to incorporate geography in the classroom would be by having students to participate in Adopt a Rock. The students will have the opportunity to give the rocks a home. The students will name the rock, make-up where it came from, why it is shaped the way it is. The students can take the rock home and take pictures of the rock and the travels the rock went through. The main thing to have kids realize is that every rock matters.
There is a wonderful video that you can watch to learn more about the 5 major themes of geography. Click here!
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