Lesson Plan for Social Studies5th Grade

Title: Bodies of Water Date: September 23, 2010

Core Standards: 5.3.3 Places and Regions: Name and locate states, regions, major cities and capitals, major rivers, and mountain ranges in the United States.5.3.5 Physical Systems: Locate the continental divide and the major drainage basins in the United States

Materials/Resources:

page 5 worksheet, quiz on www.quia.com, Indiana Social Studies: The United States Making a New Nation by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishers, Website: www.mrnussbaum.com/circumcode.htm, paper maps and illustrations of major landforms, crayons or coloring pencils, promethean board

Objectives: After instruction, students will l will be able to locate the major bodies of water found

through the United States on a map of the United States as evidenced by students correctly illustrating their maps.

After instruction, students will be able describe and name various bodies of water both verbally and in written form.

After instruction, students will be able to identify the Continental Divide and place it’s location on a map.

Introduction/Motivation/Springboard: Procedures/Activities:1. Ask students to tell how to remember the five great lakes.2. Write the names on the board. 3. Teach the mnemonic device HOMES4. Tell them they will learn more about different bodies of water this week.5. Have students read Pages 35-37. 6. Discuss the information found on page 35-37.7. Ask students to describe the Great Lakes, rivers, and gulf.8. Discuss the Continental Divide. How is it important to the rivers and lakes.9. Make sure students know that rivers, streams, and creeks empty into the ocean not the

reverse. 10. Have them think about the height of the beginning of the river. Is it higher or lower than the

ocean that it eventually empties into?11. Today, students will learn about lakes and where they are located. 12. Review the vocabulary.13. Use website: www.mrnussbaum.com/circumcede.htm to help students locate the bodies of

water that they read about today. Play the interactive map game and ask students to show where the bodies of water and mountains are located on the map.

14. Direct students to get their art supplies, so that they can work on their landform maps. 15. First, students should use a blue marker, crayon, etc to outline the Mississippi River, Ohio

River, Great Lakes, and the Gulf of Mexico. 16. Remind students to make a key showing the bodies of water on the map.

17. Students cut out the other landforms and glue them to their maps. 18. Remind students to use the labels to show that they know which landforms they are placing

on the map. 19. Students can move on to other bodies of water and landforms after they outline the rivers. Closure Activity/Extensions/Homework: Today, you learned a way to remember the Great Lakes. Who can name one of the lakes? You have your landform maps to finish tomorrow. We will work on them during class time.

Reflection:Students eagerly worked on their maps. They enjoyed coloring the landforms and cutting and

pasting them to the paper map. I was surprised at the number of students who did not know

how to create a map key because they had been working on this previously.

Many had never heard of the mnemonic device (HOMES) that helps remember the five Great

Lakes. After instruction, however, most were able to repeat the lakes in order of the mnemonic

device.

Overall, I believe the lesson accomplished the goal. Students were able to describe and locate

the Continental Divide, Great Lakes, Mississippi River, Ohio River, Gulf of Mexico, Appalachian

Mountains, Rocky Mountains, and Sierra Nevada Mountains.

I was surprised that most knew that the river begins on higher ground and runs to the ocean. I

was in a college geology class where some of the students had not come to the realization that

water flows downhill and, therefore, flows from the higher ground to the ocean. They had

thought that the water came from the oceans inland.

Analysis of Teaching

After instruction, I expected students to be able to name major rivers, lakes, and gulfs as

well as some of the major cities found in those areas. No differentiated expectations were

needed for this lesson. It covers many different learning styles. This lesson is a continuation of

the landforms lessons that the students have been working with. They created dioramas of

landforms previously and before that worked on maps which they illustrated with the location of

various landforms. In this lesson they continue this trend with the study of bodies of water.

Instructional strategies used for this lesson were:

Questioning—Students were asked questions about what they already knew

about the Great Lakes.

Mnemonic devices—Students were taught the mnemonic device HOMES to help

them remember the names of the five Great Lakes. Most had never heard this

one.

Direct instruction—Students read the selected text readings and discussed what

they had read.

Analysis—Students analyzed the importance of the Continental Divide for

providing fresh water sources for the interior of the United States.

Project—Students continued to work on a map, illustrating where the different

bodies of water are located.

Learning Activites:

Students created a map that showed the major bodies of water such as the Gulf

of Mexico, Mississippi River, and the Great Lakes.

Students also discussed the importance of the Continental Divide as a means of

providing fresh water to the interior of the United States.

Student success was based on the student demonstrating an understanding of where

major bodies of water were located. This was done by use of illustrating a blank map of the

United States. There was no differentiation of instruction as all students were able to complete

the project. Students were also required to include a key to their map.

Monitoring was done by circulating around the room while students worked on their

maps. Students that were off-task were redirected to the task. Encouragement and correction

was given to individual students as needed.

No implications of different points of view were needed for this assignment. Students

were using the technical information they had gained from classroom discussion and reading to

illustrate their map.

Based on the performance of the students, I would not change this project in the future.

The students engaged themselves in the project and were able to accurately complete the

maps. They did show some confusion about the location of the Mississippi River, so perhaps

better instruction on exactly where it is located would help in the future. Other than that detail,

the project was successful with most students having no difficulty.