This document outlines a lesson plan for teaching 4th grade students about the 5 themes of geography. The class has 17 students from a variety of racial backgrounds. Over the course of a week, the students will learn about location, place, human-environment interaction, movement, and region through daily map drawing activities, class discussions, internet research, reading assignments, and art projects. The goal is for 85% of students to understand each theme with 85% accuracy by the end of the lessons.

1. 5 Themes of Geography
Elizabeth Grishaber

2. The Class
• 4th grade
• 8 boys, 9 girls
• 70% white 20% African-American and 10%
Hispanic
• By the end of the week, this class should have a
general understanding of the 5 themes of
geography with 85% accuracy through the use of
class discussions, drawing activities, the use of
the internet, and their own creativity.

3. Location
• Where is it?
• NSEW
• Drawing of a state (daily)
• The students will draw a state of their choosing daily,
after looking at it on a map and trying to draw it from
memory. It should improve by the end of the week and
they will be able to look at their improvements.
• My students will have a general understanding of
north, south, east, and west by participating in class
discussion, drawing a state of their choice once daily
from memory, and looking at a map with 85% accuracy.

4. Place
• How is it different from other places?
• Different ways to say “Hello”
• Climate, physical features, languages
• Using the internet, the students can look up the many
different ways that you can say “Hello”
• Climate of the state they chose compared to ours
• My students should have an understanding of what
place means through the use of the internet and
participating in class discussions with 85% accuracy.

5. Human-Environment Interaction
• How have people used the land?
• What if we never mowed the grass?
• Drawing a picture of what they think it would
look like if people never mowed
• The Lorax reading
• My students should have an understanding of
what human-environment interaction is after
participating in the class art activity and
discussion with 85% accuracy.

6. Movement
• What is the relationship between people and places?
• Where are our products from?
• The tags on our shirts, bringing in tags from home took
look at all the different places things are from
• How do they get here?
• My students should have a general understanding of
what movement means after participating in the class
discussion and class activity with 85% accuracy.

7. Region
• How can the Earth be divided?
• World Time Zone Map
• While we are asleep, people are waking up…
• My class should have a general understanding
of what region means after looking up ways to
divide places into a region, looking at different
regions in the book, and participating in class
discussions with 85% accuracy.