Unit 5: Our World
Embedded Files
Impact Chapter: 2
ReadyGen Alignment: Module 6A and B
Text Alignment: On the Town: A Community Adventure and Places in My Neighborhood
Text Alignment: Neighborhood Walk: City and While I am Sleeping
Unit Overview: Where do we live in the world?
In this unit, kindergartners will embark on an exciting journey of discovery as they explore the geography of their surroundings. They will learn about the tools used to represent places and understand how the environment influences the way people live. Students will distinguish between maps and globes as ways to show places people live and utilize various geographic tools such as globes, maps, and GPS to describe different places. They will identify the similarities and differences between their own lives and those of children in other communities. Additionally, students will recognize how the environment, geographic features, and climate impact various aspects of people's lifestyles, including food, sports, shelter, transportation, and schools. Students will gain an appreciation for the diverse communities and environments that exist both locally and globally. This unit will foster their curiosity about the world, encouraging them to explore and understand their place in it.
Prepared Graduates:
Apply geographic representations and perspectives to analyze human movement, spatial patterns, systems, and the connections and relationships among them.
Examine the characteristics of places and regions, and the changing nature among geographic and human interactions.
Grade Level Expectation(s):
2.1 and 2.2 Geography:
Recognize that geographic tools represent places and spaces.
Identify how the environment influences the way people live.
The highlighted evidence outcomes are the priority for all students, serving as the essential concepts and skills. It is recommended that the remaining evidence outcomes listed be addressed as time allows, representing the full breadth of the curriculum.
Students Can (Evidence Outcomes):
Distinguish between a map and a globe as ways to show places people live. (2.1.a)
Use geographic tools to describe places. For example: globes, maps, and GPS. (2.1.b)
Identify ways students’ lives are similar and different from those in other communities. (2.2.a)
Identify how the environment, geographic features, and climate impact lifestyles. For example: Food, sports, shelter, transportation, school, etc (2.2.b)
Colorado Essential and Nature of Skills
Find information using geographic technologies (Critical Thinking and Analysis).
Compare attitudes and beliefs as an individual to others (Social Awareness).
Recognize and describe cause-and-effect relationships between people and their surroundings (Social Awareness).
Geographic thinkers distinguish between a map and globe to show places where people live.
Geographic thinkers investigate other cultures and how they have been influenced by the climate, physical geography, and cultures of an area.
Geographic thinkers understand that people live in different settings and interact with their environment based on location. For example: People living in colder climates wear more clothes, and people in areas where there are floods live on higher ground or in houses on stilts.
Inquiry Questions
What information can a map and/or globe give about the places and spaces people live?
What would it be like to live in another community, region, city, state, or country?
What makes a community special to the people who live there, and how is it different from what makes our community special
How do the environment, geographic features, and climate impact how people live within a community?
Disciplinary, Informational, and Media Literacies
Use developmentally appropriate technology resources to present learning.
Identify vocabulary through illustrations.
Interpret what is read through illustrations.
Generate questions and/or answers when presented with geographic tools such as maps, globes, etc.
Pose and respond to questions and contribute to the discussion about a topic or text in order to advance the dialogue.
Academic Vocabulary and Language Expectations
Country, globe, map, neighborhood, state, world
Possible Assessments:
Inquiry Project
Students work with a small group to make a map of the community. They choose important places to show on the map with symbols. They present the map to the class. See pages T93 for more information (Impact Teachers Guide)
Lesson Tests (1-5) and Chapter Overview Assessment Chapter 2
Instructional Resources & Notes:
Chapter 2 from Impact
Research Companion
Inquiry Journal
Explorer Magazine
Supplemental Resources
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