Let’s Explore Maps!!! AISA BRAMMER

Social Studies

Third Grade

The Purpose of this instructional Power Point is to introduce using maps to locate and understand physical and political features on maps.

Learning Objective: Given a map the student will demonstrate with 100% accuracy their ability to locate or identify major physical and political features including mountains, plains, plateaus, mesas, buttes deserts, deltas, islands, peninsulas, basins, canyons, valleys, bays, streams, gulfs, straits, canals, seas, boundaries, cities, highways, roads, and railroads.

State Standard: 3.4 Examine major physical and political features on globes and maps, including mountains, plains, plateaus, mesas, buttes deserts, deltas, islands, peninsulas, basins, canyons, valleys, bays, streams, gulfs, straits, canals, seas, boundaries, cities, highways, roads, and railroads.

What do we know about maps?

What can we find on a Map?

What types or places or things can we find?

Let see some of the MANY ways we can use maps!

https://www.flocabulary.com/map-skills/

A political map shows: Boundaries of

States

Boundaries of Countries

Major Cities

Bodies of Water

When looking at this map, what feature helps you to tell between the different countries?

A Physical Map shows:

The same features as a Political map but also shows:

Location of landforms

Landform is the name we use to describe earths physical features

We can explore all parts of the world and learn from maps.

Let’s Explore:https://www.google.com/maps/@44.5191019,-100.5078125,3z

What landforms do we see here?

o Mountainso Plains o Plateauo Lakeso Riverso Deserto Gulf

How do we identify some of these landforms?

A Peninsula is a piece of land surrounded by water on 3 sides.Mexico has 2:

Baja & Yucatan

A Strait is a narrow passage of water that connects two larger bodies of water

A bay is a body of water partially surrounded by land.

The Hudson BayJames BayUngava Bay

A Gulf is a portion of an ocean or sea that penetrates land

The Gulf of Mexico

The colors and texture on this map help identify the landforms.

The SCALE OF RELIEF helps by:

• Gives a colored visual• Gives elevation of the

land

Using the scale,

what does it tell us about the elevation of the Gulf Coast Plain? What does it tell us about the Toyah Basin?

This map of Alaska shows us landforms:

Seas: Bering, Chukchi, Beaufort

Bay: Bristol

Gulf: Gulf of Alaska

Peninsulas: Alaska Peninsula, Kenai Peninsula

Island: St. Lawrence, Fox Islands, Nunivak Island, Kodiak Island

Oceans: Artic, Pacific

Archipelago

RiverLake

GulfPeninsula

Isthmus

Strait

Island

Bay

ThinkPair Share

What characteristics would help you identify these features on a map?

Now let’s explore South America

What landform looks like it has the highest elevation?

What does the lightest color mean?

What does that tell us about the Amazon Basin?

What river goes through the Amazon Basin?

We often use these Characteristics to make what we call regions:

Regions are areas that grouped together based on similarities.

These can be based of location (if they are close to each other)

Or based on characteristics

Lets explore how these physical features create regions in the U.S

http://www.eduplace.com/kids/socsci/books/applications/imaps/maps/g4n_u1/index.html

What were some of the landforms that caused regions?

Let’s Review!

There are two important types of Maps:

Political:

• Country Boundaries• State Boundaries• Major Cities• Bodies of Water

Physical:

• Mountain• Plains• Plateau• Desert• Island• Peninsula• Basin• Gulf• Strait• Canal• Sea