Content Area: Social Studies

 

Index: 6.6E Grade 4 CPI 1

 

Standard: 6.6 - Geography

 

Strand: E -  Environment and Society

 

Cumulative Progress Indicator: 1 - The student will differentiate between living and non-living natural resources.

 

Grade: 4

 

Sample Activities:

 

·        The Great Kapok Tree is a story of the rain forest. This story has great potential for science, language arts/reading, social studies, and art connections. Use the map in the book to assist students in identifying the Amazon rain forest and making connections between locations of the world’s rain forests and the equator. Using the map key, students reach conclusions concerning the difference between today’s rain forests and the original extent of rain forests. They then share what they already know about the rain forest. Assign parts of the story to each student to read aloud. After the reading is completed, use graphic organizers to help students summarize the main ideas. Follow-up activities could be any of the following: Students select rain forest animals and create drawings or posters. Select activities from the World Wildlife Fund’s Take Action: An Environmental Book for Kids (Anne Love & Jane Drake, 1992, Beech Tree paperback). Select readings and activities from the Educators’ Guide for National Wildlife Week, 1993 (National Wildlife Federation, 1400 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20036). Select activities from the World Wildlife Fund’s Vanishing Rain Forest Education Kit (P.O. Box 4866, Hampden Post Office, Baltimore, MD 21211; 410-516-6951). Select activities from the thematic unit Jungle (Teacher Created Materials, Inc., P.O. Box 1214, Huntington Beach, CA 92647). Note reference to all the items that originate from the rain forest. Students should reach a conclusion concerning the potential for future discoveries in the field of medicine. Students view the NGS video, Totally Tropical Rain Forest.  Students play “Jungle Lotto.”

 

·        Students work in cooperative groups to make a diorama of a rain forest. They draw what the rain forest looks like now and what it will look like if people continue to destroy it. Develop a rubric to evaluate the group work with criteria based on the quality of their projections based on realistic forecasts. Alternately, students write an essay on why the rain forest should be saved.

 

Kidspiration Activities:

 

·        Use symbols and links to show cause/effect relationships

·        Use SuperGroupe categories to create compare/contrast relationships.