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Place describes the physical features and human features of a location. Physical features are natural features such as climate, landforms, and plant and animal life. Human features are created or developed by people and include highways, buildings, language, and government. The activities below are based on the theme of place. Select the appropriate grade level for your child and try the activities!
Grade 1 : A Model Home
Grade 1 : Picture Far-Off Places
Grade 2 : Want to Be My Neighbor?
Grade 2 : Season's Greetings!
Grade 3 : Be a Mapmaker!
Grade 3 : My Community
Grade 4 : Map a Photograph
Grade 4 : Design a State Web Page
Grade 5 : What a Spectacular Place!
Grade 5 : Walk This Way!
Grade 6 : Be a News Reporter!
Grade 6 : Feature This!
Grade 1: A Model Home
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Help your child make a model, a three-dimensional representation, of your home and yard. Because your home is a place, it has features that make it special. Every place has two kinds of features. It has physical features that are part of the natural environment, such as trees, hills, rivers, climate, and plant and animal life. A place also has human features made or developed by people, such as art, buildings, schools, roads, and customs and traditions. You may find that most features in and around your home are human features, such as the materials used to build your home, and the decorations and furniture in your home. These features make your home different from any other place on Earth.
Use the following steps as guidelines:
- Discuss the features of your home with your child. You and your child might make a list of these features.
- Make a model of your home with your child. You might use blocks, boxes, or clay to make the model. On the model, include the features you and your child discussed. You might want to label the features on your model.
- Share the model with other family members. Ask them if they would like to add any other features to the model.
Materials Needed:
- paper and pencil
- blocks, boxes, or clay
- poster board or construction paper
- crayons, colored pencils, or markers
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Grade 1: Picture Far-off Places
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| Read and discuss storybooks about different places with your child. The storybooks can be about real or imaginary places. For example, you might read The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. This book describes the place where the little house was built. Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey describes Boston the place Mr. and Mrs. Mallard decide to make their home. Both these books describe the two kinds of features that characterize places. Physical features are part of the natural environment, such as trees, hills, rivers, streams, climate, and plant and animal life. Human features are made or developed by people and can include art, buildings, schools, roads, bridges, customs and traditions, language, and ways of making a living. Help your child find other storybooks in the library about places. Read the books with your child. Then, discuss how the features of the places in the books are different from the features of the place where you live.
Materials Needed:
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Grade 2 : Want to Be My Neighbor?
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Help your child create an advertisement about your neighborhood. As a place, your neighborhood has features that make it different from any other place. There are physical features that are part of the natural environment, such as trees, hills, rivers, climate, and plant and animal life. There also are human features made or developed by people, such as art, buildings, schools, bridges, roads, playgrounds, parks, language, customs and traditions, and ways of making a living.
What features characterize your neighborhood?
You and your child might want to grab your notepads, go outside, and take a walk through your neighborhood. Look for the physical and human features that make your neighborhood a special place.
After your tour, you and your child can begin to create your advertisement. It should point out the best features of your neighborhood. You might want to mention fun activities and events that are part of your neighborhood. You and your child can decide which media to use to make your advertisement: Internet, billboard, television, radio, magazine, or newspaper. Be sure to present the advertisement to members of your special neighborhood.
Materials Needed:
- butcher paper or construction paper and pencil
- colored pencils, crayons, or markers
- microphone (optional)
- large box made to resemble a television/computer monitor (optional)
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Grade 2 : Season's Greetings!
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Help your child make four greeting cards one for each of the four seasons in your neighborhood. As a place, your neighborhood has human features made or developed by people, such as buildings, schools, bridges, playgrounds, farms, roads, customs, and ways of making a living. It also has physical features that are part of the natural environment, such as trees, hills, rivers, and plant and animal life. The type of weather during each season is a physical feature of a place. Weather helps tell about the place. Your child can put drawings or photographs on the cover of each greeting card. On the inside of each card, have your child write a phrase or sentence that describes the weather of the season shown on the cover. Your child might want to send each greeting card to a friend or family member during the appropriate season.
Materials Needed:
- construction paper
- crayons, colored pencils, or markers
- photographs (optional)
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Grade 3 : Be a Mapmaker!
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| Help your child make a map of a special place your community. Explain to your child that each place on Earth has features that make it different from any other place. Some are physical features, or part of nature, such as rivers, trees, hills, and mountains. Others are human features, or those made by people, such as houses, roads, schools, bridges, farms, and factories.
You can use the following steps as a guide:
- Examine a world map, a map of the United States, and a map of your state with your child. Point out all the places that your family has visited. Have your child point out physical and human features shown on the maps.
- Take a tour of your community with your child. Point out and discuss with your child the physical and human features of your community that you may wish to include on your map.
- Be sure to add a compass rose and a map key with symbols, such as stop signs, school, hospital, trees, roads, and other symbols to your map.
- Your child may draw pictures, cut pictures from magazines, or use photographs to represent the features and symbols on the map.
- Have your child share the finished map with friends and family members. Ask them to use the map and make comments.
Materials Needed:
- Internet or other maps of the world, the United States, and your state
- poster board or butcher paper
- magazines
- scissors, glue or tape
- pencils, crayons, colored pencils, or markers
- photographs (optional)
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Grade 3 : My Community
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Help your child write a letter describing your community to a real or imaginary pen pal in another country. Each community is a place and has physical and human features that make it special. Physical features are part of the natural environment, such as trees, hills, rivers, climate, and plant and animal life. Human features are made or developed by people and can include art, buildings, schools, bridges, roads, farms, language, customs and traditions, and ways of making a living. Discuss the features of your community with your child. Then help your child describe these features in a letter to her or his pen pal. Your child may wish to include a sketch or drawing of one or two special features in the letter.
Materials Needed:
- writing paper
- pen or pencil
- drawing paper (optional)
- crayons, colored pencils, pens, or markers (optional)
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Grade 4 : Map a Photograph
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Help your child make a map based on a photograph of a place. Your child can use a camera to take a photograph of a place or find a photograph of a place in a magazine. Point out to your child that each place on Earth has features that make it special. A place has physical features that are part of the environment, such as rivers, streams, hills, forests, and plant and animal life. A place also has human features made or developed by people, such as highways, airports, bridges, cities, farms, schools, and factories.
You and your child can use the following steps as a guide:
- Examine the photograph with your child. Ask your child to identify the features of the place in the photograph.
- Make a map based on the photograph. The map should include the following items:
- a title explaining what the map shows,
- symbols representing the features in the approximate position where they appear in the photograph,
- a legend (map key) showing what the symbols on the map represent,
- a compass rose showing north, south, east, and west.
Have your child share the finished map with family members and friends. Ask them to read the map and find the physical and human features shown on the map. See if they can identify the place from your map.
Material Needed:
- camera (optional)
- magazines
- paper and pencil
- colored pens, pencils or markers
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Grade 4 : Design a State Web Page
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Help your child plan and design a web page of your state to use on the Internet. The web page should describe the features of your state. Like every place on Earth, your state has physical features and human features. Physical features are part of the environment, such as bodies of water, hills, mountains, forests, climate, and natural resources. Natural resources are things found in nature that people can use. Some natural resources are water, coal, oil, and natural gas. Human features are made or developed by people and can include art and architecture, railroads, airports, cities, farms, schools, roads, highways, kinds of government, customs and traditions, and ways of making a living.
You can design your web page using the following guides:
- Use an encyclopedia or an atlas to find information about the physical and human features of your state.
- Surf the Internet with your child to find examples of state web pages. You might try the following address: www.state.[insert initials of a state].us.
- Make a plan and create the web page of your state.
- Share your state web page with friends and family members.
Materials Needed:
- encyclopedias and atlases
- Internet
- paper and pencil
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Grade 5 : What a Spectacular Place!
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Explain to your child that she or he works for the department of travel and tourism and must design a poster to attract tourists to visit a certain place. Your child has learned that each place has physical features, such as mountains, rivers, and climate, which are parts of the environment. Your child also has learned that each place has human features, such as language, customs, and ways of making a living, which are created or developed by people. Have your child choose one place, such as a city, an island, or a country, to advertise on a poster. Then use encyclopedias, Internet maps, and other reference materials to learn about the features of this special place. Remind your child to make her or his poster colorful and appealing! Be sure she or he includes drawings, photographs, or pictures cut from magazines that show some of the interesting and attractive features of her or his special place. Use brief descriptions or catchy words and phrases on the poster to highlight the features of the special place.
Materials Needed:
- encyclopedias
- world atlas or Internet maps of the world
- poster board
- magazines
- photographs (optional)
- colored pens, pencils, or markers
- scissors, glue or tape
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Grade 5 : Walk This Way!
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Plan a walking tour of Washington, D.C., or your state capital with your child. Decide which physical and human features of Washington, D.C., or your state capital that you and your child wish to see. Physical features are part of the environment, such as bodies of water, hills, mountains, forests, climate, and plant and animal life. Human features are made or developed by people and can include monuments, museums and other buildings, railroads, airports, farms, schools, playgrounds, parks, roads, and highways. Write a plan for your walking tour, including your destinations and the routes. Use a map of Washington, D.C., or your state capital to help you plan your walk.
You can use the following steps as a guide:
- Obtain a detailed map of Washington, D.C., or your state capital. You might look on the Internet or in an atlas for such a map.
- Study the map with your child. Choose several physical features and human features that you would like to visit on your walking tour.
- Plan your walking tour based on the features you wish to see. Be sure to take into consideration where you begin your tour and the order in which you will visit the features. Identify your destinations and describe the walking route in your plan.
- Try your walking tour with your child!
Materials Needed:
- detailed map of Washington, D.C., or your state capital
- pencil and paper
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Grade 6 : Be a News Reporter!
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Help your child develop a news report on an environmental problem, such as a flood or earthquake, has occurred in a particular place. Be sure to describe how the environmental problem affects the physical and human features of the place. Each place on Earth is characterized by two kinds of features. Physical features are part of the natural environment and include bodies of water, landforms, soil, climate, and plant and animal life. Human features are made or developed by people and include kinds of government, customs, and traditions, ways of making a living, and land use and architecture, such as cities, farms, buildings, airports, and schools.
Use the following steps as guidelines:
- Research past or present environmental problems with your child, using newspapers, magazines, or the Internet.
- Help your child choose an environmental problem and write a news report about how the environmental problem has affected the physical and human features of a certain place.
- Grab your video recorder and videotape your child as she or he delivers an on-the-scene, live, news report for a television station.
Materials Needed:
- newspapers and magazines
- Internet
- paper and pencil
- video recorder (optional)
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Grade 6 : Feature This!
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Help your child make a map of a country showing either its physical features or human features. Each place on Earth is characterized by these two kinds of features. Physical features are part of the natural environment and include bodies of water, landforms, soil, climate, and plant and animal life. Human features are made or developed by people and include kinds of government, customs, ways of making a living and using land, and architecture, such as cities, farms, buildings, airports, and schools. For example, you and your child might choose to show the landforms in Canada. Or perhaps you prefer to make a map showing the locations of the major industries in Germany.
You and your child can use the following steps as a guide:
- Help your child choose a country for the map. Use encyclopedias and atlases to find information.
- Make a map of the chosen country showing either physical or human features of the country. The map should include the following items:
- a title explaining what the map shows,
- labels or symbols representing the features,
- a legend (map key) showing what the symbols on the map represent,
- a compass rose showing north, south, east, and west.
- Share the map with other family members. Ask them questions about the map.
Materials Needed:
- encyclopedias and atlases with maps of the chosen country
- paper
- pencils, colored pencils, or markers
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