Helping Your Child Learn Geography
Helping Your Child Learn Geography
Foreword
Remember thumbing through an atlas or
encyclopedia as a
child, imagining yourself as a world traveler
on a safari in
Africa, or boating up the Mississippi River, climbing
the peaks
of the Himalayas, visiting ancient cathedrals
and castles of
Europe, the Great Wall of China? We do. The world
seemed full
of faraway, exotic, and wonderful places that
we wanted to know
more about.
Today, we would like to believe that youngsters
are
growing up similarly inquisitive about the world.
Perhaps they
are, but recent studies and reports indicate that,
if such
imaginings are stirring in our youngsters, they're
not being
translated into knowledge. Not that there ever
was a "golden
age" when all our young and all our citizens
were conversant
about the peoples and places of the globe. Still,
there is
considerable evidence that such knowledge among
young Americans
has dipped to an alarming low.
Last year, a nine-nation survey found
that one in five
young Americans (18- to 24-year-olds) could not
locate the
United States on an outline map of the world.
Young Americans
knew measurably less geography than Americans
25 years of age
and over. Only in the United States did 18- to
24-year-olds
know less than people 55 years old and over; in
all eight other
nations, young adults knew more than the older
ones.
No less disturbing was the fact that our
young adults,
when compared with young adults in other countries,
came in
last place in a 1980 Gallup Poll. Our 18- to 24-year-olds
knew
less about geography than their age-mates in every
other
participating nation. But it shouldn't surprise
us. Youngsters
in other countries study more geography. In England,
Canada,
and the Soviet Union, geography is considered
one of the basic
academic subjects and is required of most secondary
students;
in the United States, only one in seven students
takes a high
school geography course.
You'd think that our students learn at
least some
geography, though, in their world history classes.
Those who
take world history probably do. But that's only
44 percent of
our high school graduates. More than half of our
high school
students are graduating without studying world
history.
If youngsters are to acquire an appreciation
of geography
and ultimately learn to think geographically,
parents and
communities must insist that local schools restore
it to
prominence in the curriculum. They should insist
that geography
be studied and learned, in one form or another,
through several
years of the primary and secondary curriculum.
Learning should not be restricted to the
classroom.
Parents are a child's first teachers and can do
much to advance
a youngster's geographic knowledge. This booklet
suggests some
ways to do so.
It is based on a fundamental assumption:
that children
generally learn what adults around them value.
The significance
attached to geography at home or at school can
be estimated in
a glance at the walls and bookshelves.
Simply put, youngsters who grow up around
maps and atlases
are more likely to get the "map habit"
than youngsters who do
not. Where there are maps, atlases, and globes,
discussions of
world events (at whatever intellectual level)
are more likely
to include at least a passing glance at their
physical
location. Turning to maps and atlases frequently
leads
youngsters to fashion, over time, their own "mental
maps" of
the world--maps that serve not only to organize
in their minds
the peoples, places, and things they see and hear
about in the
news, but also to suggest why certain events unfold
in
particular places.
Helping every child develop his or her
ability to use maps
and to develop mental maps of the world ought
to become a
priority in our homes and schools. For, as we
all know, our
lives are becoming an ever tighter weave of interactions
with
people around the world. If our businesses are
to fare well in
tomorrow's world markets, if our national policies
are to
achieve our aims in the future, and if our relationships
with
other peoples are to grow resilient and mutually
enriching, our
children must grow to know what in the world is
where.
This booklet is designed to help parents
stir children's
curiosity and steer that curiosity toward geographic
questions
and knowledge. It is organized around the five
themes recently
set forth by geographers and geography educators
across the
Nation--the physical location of a place, the
character of a
place, relationships between places, movement
of people and
things, and phenomena that cause us to group places
into
particular regions.
We encourage parents to get to the fun
part--that is, the
activities. The games, maps, and suggested activities
that
follow, while informal and easy to do, can help
lay a solid
foundation in experience for children's later,
more academic
forays into geography.
Bruno V. Manno
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Planning
Kirk Winters
Research Associate
Office of Educational Research and Improvement
U.S. Department of Education
Introduction
Children are playing in the sand. They
make roads for
cars. One builds a castle where a doll can live.
Another scoops
out a hole, uses the dirt to make a hill, and
pours some water
in the hole to make a lake. Sticks become bridges
and trees.
The children name the streets, and may even use
a watering can
to make rain.
Although they don't know it, these children
are learning
the principles of geography. They are locating
things, seeing
how people interact with he Earth, manipulating
the
environment, learning how weather changes the
character of a
place, and looking at how places relate to each
other through
the movement of things from one place to another.
With this book, we hope you, as parents,
will get ideas
for activities that will use your children's play
to informally
help them learn more geography--the study of the
Earth.
Most of the suggestions in this book are
geared to
children under 10 years of age. The activities
and games are
organized around five specific themes that help
focus our
thinking. These themes were developed by the Joint
Committee on
Geographic Education of the National Council for
Geographic
Education and the American Association of Geographers
and are
now being used in many schools. They are:
1. Where are things located?
2. What makes a place special?
3. What are the relationships among people
and places?
4. What are the patterns of movement of people,
products, and
information?
5. How can the Earth be divided into regions
for study?
These themes have been adopted by many
schools in the last
few years and may be new to many parents. To help
focus your
awareness of the issues, we will begin each chapter
with a
brief description of the theme. This description
includes
examples of questions geographers use as they
strive to
understand and define the Earth, for geography
provides us with
a system for asking questions about the Earth.
Location:
Position on the Earth's Surface
Look at a map. Where are places located?
To determine
location, geographers use a set of imaginary lines
that
crisscross the surface of the globe. Lines designating
"latitude" tell us how far north or
south of the equator a
place is. Lines designating "longitude"
measure distance east
and west of the prime meridian--an imaginary line
running
between the North Pole and the South Pole through
Greenwich,
England. You can use latitude and longitude as
you would a
simple grid system on a state highway map. The
point where the
lines intersect is the "location"--or
global address. For
example, St. Louis, Missouri, is roughly at 39°
(degrees) north
latitude and 90° west longitude.
Why are things located in particular places
and how do
those places influence our lives? Location further
describes
how one place relates to another. St. Louis is
where the
Mississippi and the Missouri rivers meet about
midway between
Minneapolis-St. Paul and New Orleans. It developed
as a trading
center between east and west, north and south.
Directions
To help young children learn location,
make sure they know
the color and style of the building in which they
live, the
name of their town, and their street address.
Then, when you
talk about other places, they have something of
their own with
which to compare.
* Children need to understand positional
words. Teach
children words like "above" and
"below" in a natural way
when you talk with them or give them directions.
When
picking up toys to put away, say, "Please
put your toy
into the basket on the right" or, "Put
the green washcloth
into the drawer." Right and left are
as much directional
terms as north, south, east, and west. Other
words that
describe such features as color, size, and
shape are also
important.
* Show your children north, south, east,
and west by using
your home as a reference point. Perhaps you
can see the
sun rising in the morning through a bedroom
window that
faces east and setting at night through the
westerly
kitchen window:
* Reinforce their knowledge by playing games.
Once children
have their directional bearings, you can
hide an object,
for example, then give them directions to
its location:
"two steps to the north, three steps
west ...."
* Use pictures from books and magazines
to help your
children associate words with visual images.
A picture of
a desert can stimulate conversation about
the features of
a desert--arid and barren. Work with your
children to
develop more complex descriptions of different
natural and
cultural features.
Maps
Put your child's natural curiosity to
work. Even small
children can learn to read simple maps of their
school,
neighborhood, and community. Here are some simple
map
activities you can do with your children.
* Go on a walk and collect natural materials
such as
acorns and leaves to use for an art project.
Map the
location where you found those items.
* Create a treasure map for children to find
hidden treats
in the back yard or inside your home. Treasure
maps work
especially well for birthday parties.
* Look for your city or town on a map. If
you live in a
large city or town, you may even be able
to find your
street. Point out where your relatives or
your children's
best friends live.
* Find the nearest park, lake, mountain,
or other cultural
or physical feature on a map. Then, talk
about how these
features affect your child's life. Living
near the ocean
may make your climate moderate, prairies
may provide an
open path for high winds, and mountains may
block some
weather fronts.
* By looking at a map, your children may
learn why they go
to a particular school. Perhaps the next
nearest school is
on the other side of a park, a busy street,
or a large
hill. Maps teach us about our surroundings
by portraying
them in relation to other places.
* Before taking a trip, show your children
a map of where
you are going and how you plan to get there.
Look for
other ways you could go, and talk about why
you decided to
use a particular route. Maybe they can suggest
other
routes.
* Encourage your children to make their
own maps using
legends with symbols. Older children can
draw a layout of
their street, or they can illustrate places
or journeys
they have read about. Some books, like Winnie-the-Pooh
and
The Wizard of Oz, contain fanciful maps.
These can be
models for children to create and plot their
own stories.
* Keep a globe and a map of the United States
near the
television and use them to locate places
talked about on
television programs, or to follow the travels
of your
favorite sports team.
Additional Activities
Children use all of their senses to learn
about the world.
Objects that they can touch, see, smell, taste,
and hear help
them understand the link between a model and the
real thing.
* Put together puzzles of the United States
or the world.
Through the placement of the puzzle pieces,
children gain
a tactile and visual sense of where one place
is located
in relation to others.
* Make a three-dimensional map of your home
or neighborhood
using milk cartons for buildings. Draw a
map of the block
on a piece of cardboard, then cut up the
cartons (or any
other three-dimensional item) and use them
to represent
buildings. Use bottle tops or smaller boxes
to add
interest to the map, but try to keep the
scale
relationships correct.
* Use popular board games like "Game
of the States" or "Trip
Around the World" to teach your children
about location,
commerce, transportation, and the relationships,
among
different countries and areas of the world.
Some of these
games are available at public libraries.
* Make paper-mache using strips of old newspaper
and a
paste made from flour and water. If children
form balls by
wrapping the strips of paper-mache around
a balloon, they
will develop a realistic understanding of
the difficulties
in making accurate globes. They can also
use paper-mache
to make models of hills and valleys.
Place:
Physical and Human Characteristics
Every place has a personality. What makes
a place special?
What are the physical and cultural characteristics
of your
hometown? Is the soil sandy or rocky? Is the temperature
warm
or is it cold? If it has many characteristics,
which are the
most distinct?
How do these characteristics affect the
people living
there? People change the character of a place.
They speak a
particular language, have styles of government
and
architecture, and form patterns of business. How
have people
shaped the landscapes?
Investigate Your Neighborhood
* Walk around your neighborhood and look
at what makes it
unique. Point out differences from and similarities
to
other places. Can your children distinguish
various types
of homes and shops? Look at the buildings
and talk about
their uses. Are there features built to conform
with the
weather or topography? Do the shapes of some
buildings
indicate how they were used in the past or
how they're
used now? These observations help children
understand the
character of a place.
* Show your children the historical, recreational,
or
natural points of interest in your town.
What animals and
plants live in your neighborhood? If you
live near a
harbor, pay it a visit, and tour a docked
boat. You can
even look up the shipping schedule in your
local
newspaper. If you live near a national park,
a lake, a
river, or a stream, take your children there
and spend
time talking about its uses.
* Use songs to teach geography. "Home
on the Range," "Red
River Valley," and "This Land Is
Your Land" conjure up
images of place. Children enjoy folk songs
of different
countries like "Sur La Pont D'Avignon,
.... Guantanamara,"
and "London Bridge." When your
children sing these songs,
talk with them about the places they celebrate,
locate
them on the map, and discuss how the places
are described.
Study the Weather
Weather has important geographic implications
that affect
the character of a place. The amount of sun or
rain, heat or
cold, the direction and strength of the wind,
all determine
such things as how people dress, how well crops
grow, and the
extent to which people will want to live in a
particular spot.
* Watch the weather forecast on television
or read the
weather map in the newspaper. Save the maps
for a month or
more. You can see changes over time, and
compare
conditions over several weeks and seasons.
Reading the
weather map helps children observe changes
in the local
climate.
* Use a weather map to look up the temperatures
of cities
around the world and discover how hot each
gets in the
summer and how cold each gets in the winter.
Ask your
children if they can think of reasons why
different
locations have different temperatures. Compare
these
figures with your town. Some children enjoy
finding the
place that is the hottest or the coldest.
* Make simple weather-related devices such
as barometers,
pinwheels, weather vanes, and wind chimes.
Watch cloud
formations and make weather forecasts. Talk
about how
these describe the weather in your town.
Learn About Other Cultures
People shape the personality of their
areas. The beliefs,
languages, and customs distinguish one place from
another.
* Make different ethnic foods, take your
children to an
ethnic restaurant, or treat them to ethnic
snacks at a
folk festival. Such an experience is an opportunity
to
talk about why people eat different foods.
What
ingredients in ethnic dishes are unique to
a particular
area? For example, why do the Japanese eat
so much
seafood? (If your children look for Japan
on a map they
will realize it is a country of many islands.)
* Read stories from or about other countries,
and books that
describe journeys. Many children's books
provide colorful
images of different places and a sense of
what it would be
like to live in them. Drawings or photographs
of distant
places or situations can arouse interest
in other lands.
The Little House in the Big Woods, Holiday
Tales of Sholem
Aleichem, and The Polar Express are examples
of books with
descriptions of place that have transported
the
imaginations of many young readers. There
is a
bibliography at the end of this booklet,
and your librarian
will have more suggestions.
Weather Vane
Materials: wire hanger, small plastic
container, aluminum
foil, sand or dirt, tape or glue, scissors, crayon.
Directions:
1. Straighten out the hanger's hook and cover
half of the
triangle part of the hanger with foil. Fold
the edges, and
tape or glue in place.
2. Fill the container with sand or loose
dirt, put on the lid,
and mark it N, S, E, and W. Poke the hanger
through the
center of the lid. The hanger should touch
the bottom of
the container and turn freely in the hole.
3. Put the container outside with the N facing
north. When the
wind blows, take a look at your weather vane.
The open half
of the vane shows the direction from which
the wind is
coming.
Reprinted from Sesame Street Magazine
Parent's Guide, June
1986. Copyright Children's Television Workshop.
Relationships within Places:
Humans and Environments
How do people adjust to their environment?
What are the
relationships among people and places? How do
they change it
to better suit their needs? Geographers examine
where people
live, why they settled there, and how they use
natural
resources. For example, Hudson Bay, the site of
the first
European settlement in Canada, is an area rich
in wildlife and
has sustained a trading and fur trapping industry
for hundreds
of years. Yet the climate there was described
by early settlers
as "nine months of ice followed by three
months of mosquitoes."
People can and do adapt to their natural surroundings.
Notice How You Control Your Surroundings
Everyone controls his or her surroundings.
Look at the way
you arrange furniture in your home. You place
the tables and
chairs in places that suit the shape of the room
and the
position of the windows and doors. You also arrange
the room
according to how people will use it.
* Try different furniture arrangements with
your children.
If moving real furniture is too strenuous,
try working
with doll house furniture or paper cutouts.
By cutting out
paper to represent different pieces of furniture,
children
can begin to learn the mapmaker's skill in
representing
the three-dimensional real world.
* Ask your children to consider what the
yard might look
like if you did not try to change it by mowing
grass,
raking leaves or planting shrubs or trees.
You might add a
window box if you don't have a yard. What
would happen if
you didn't water the plants?
* Walk your children around your neighborhood
or a park area
and have them clean up litter. How to dispose
of waste is
a problem with a geographic dimension.
* Take your children to see some examples
of how people have
shaped their environment: bonsai gardens,
reservoirs,
terracing, or houses built into hills. Be
sure to talk
with them about how and why these phenomena
came to be.
* If you don't live on a farm, try to visit
one. Many cities
and States maintain farm parks for just this
purpose. Call
the division of parks in your area to find
out where there
is one near you. Farmers use soil, water,
and sun to grow
crops. They use ponds or streams for water,
and build
fences to keep animals from running away.
Notice How You Adapt to Your Surroundings
People don't always change their environment.
Sometimes
they are shaped by it. Often people must build
roads around
mountains. They must build bridges over rivers.
They construct
storm walls to keep the ocean from sweeping over
beaches. In
some countries, people near coasts build their
houses on stilts
to protect them from storm tides or periodic floods.
* Go camping. It is easy to understand why
we wear long
pants and shoes when there are rocks and
brambles on the
ground, and to realize the importance to
early settlers of
being near water when you no longer have
the convenience
of a faucet.
* If you go to a park, try to attend the
nature shows that
many parks provide. You and your children
may learn about
the local plants and wildlife and how the
natural features
have changed over time.
Movement:
People Interacting on the Earth
People are scattered unevenly over the
Earth. How do they
get from one place to another? What are the patterns
of
movement of people, products, and information
? Regardless of
where we live, we rely upon each other for goods,
services, and
information. In fact, most people interact with
other places
almost every day. We depend on other places for
the food,
clothes, and even items like the pencil and paper
our children
use in school. We also share information with
each other using
telephones, newspapers, radio, and television
to bridge the
distances.
Travel in Different Ways
* Give your children opportunities to travel
by car, bus,
bicycle, or on foot. Where you can, take
other forms of
transportation such as airplanes, trains,
subways,
ferries, barges, and horses and carriages.
* Use a map to look at various routes you
can take when you
try different methods of transportation.
* Watch travel programs on television.
Follow the Movement of People and Things
* Play the license plate game. How many
different States'
plates can you identify, and what, if anything,
does the
license plate tell you about each State?
You don't have to
be in a car to play. You can look at the
license plates of
parked cars, or those traveling by when you
are walking.
Children can keep a record of the States
whose plates they
have seen. They can color in those States
on a map and
illustrate them with characteristics described
on the
license plates. Some States have county names
on their
plates. If you live in one of these States,
keeping track
of the counties could be another interesting
variation.
* Go around your house and look at where
everything comes
from. Examine the labels of the clothes you
wear and think
of where your food comes from. Why do bananas
come from
Central America? Why does the milk come from
the local
dairy? Perhaps your climate is too cold for
bananas, and
the milk is too perishable to travel far.
How did the food
get to your house?
* Tell your children where your ancestors
came from. Find
your family's countries of origin, and chart
the
birthplaces of relatives on a map. You can
plot the routes
they followed before they arrived at their
present
location. Why did they leave their previous
home? Where do
all your relatives live now?
* Have your children ask older relatives
what their world
was like when they were young. They can ask
questions
about transportation, heating and refrigeration,
the foods
they ate, the clothes they wore, and the
schools they
attended. Look at old pictures. How have
things changed
since Grandma was a child? Grandparents and
great aunts
and uncles are usually delighted to share
their memories
with the younger generation, and they can
pass on a wealth
of information.
Follow the Movement of Ideas and Information
Ideas come from beyond our immediate surroundings.
How do
they get to us? Consider communication by telephone
and mail,
television, radio, telegrams, telefax, and even
graffiti,
posters, bumper stickers, and promotional buttons.
They all
convey information from one person or place to
another.
* By watching television and listening to
the radio, your
children will receive ideas from the outside
world. Where
dothe television shows they watch originate?
What
aboutradio shows?
* Ask your children how they would communicate
with other
people. Would they use the phone or write
a letter?
Encourage them to write letters to relatives
and friends.
They may be able to get pen pals through
school or a pen
pal association. (Please see the listing
in the back of
this booklet.)
Regions:
How They Form and Change
How can places be described or compared?
How can the Earth
be divided into regions for study? Geographers
categorize
regions in two basic ways--physical and cultural.
Physical
regions are defined by landform (continents and
mountain
ranges), climate, soil, and natural vegetation.
Cultural
regions are distinguished by political, economic,
religious,
linguistic, agricultural, and industrial characteristics.
Examine Physical Regions
* Help your children understand physical
regions by
examining areas in your home. Is there an
upstairs and a
downstairs? Is there an eating area and a
sleeping area?
Are there other "regions" in your
home that can be
described?
* Look at the physical regions in your community.
Some
neighborhoods grew up around hills, others
developed on
waterfronts or around parks. What physical
regions exist
in your hometown?
Examine Cultural Regions
* Take your children to visit the different
political,
residential, recreational, ethnic, and commercial
regions
of your city.
* Go to plays, movies, and puppet shows
about people from
different countries. These are often presented
at
libraries and museums.
* Give children geography lessons by tying
in with ethnic
holiday themes. Provide children with regional
or ethnic
clothes to wear. Some museums and libraries
provide
clothes children can borrow. Holidays provide
an
opportunity to learn about the customs of
people around
the world. You can use the library to discover
how other
people celebrate special days.
* Compare coins and stamps from other lands.
They often
contain information about the country. You
may be able to
find stamps from other countries where you
work, or your
children may get them from pen pals. Stamps
tell many
different kinds of things about a country,
from its
political leadership to native bird life.
* Learn simple words in different languages.
Teach your
children to count to 10 in other languages.
They can also
learn simple words like "hello, ....
goodbye," and "thank
you." Look at the different alphabets
or script from
various regions. All these activities expose
children to
the abundance of the Earth's cultural treasures.
Many
libraries have language tapes and books,
some especially
for children.
* If you have friends who are from different
countries or
have either travelled or lived abroad, invite
them over to
talk with your children. If they have pictures,
so much
the better. What languages do they speak?
How are their
customs or dress similar to or different
from yours?
Conclusion
Geography is a way of thinking, of asking
questions, of
observing and appreciating the world around us.
You can help
your children learn by providing interesting activities
for
them, and by prompting them to ask questions about
their
surroundings.
Set a good example, and help your children
build precise
mental images, by always using correct terms.
Say, "We are
going north to New York to visit Grandma, or west
to Dallas to
see Uncle John," rather than "up to
New York" or "down to
Dallas." Use words such as highway, desert,
river, climate, and
glacier; and explain concepts like city, State,
and continent.
Many of the words used in geography are
everyday words.
But, like any other field of learning, geography
has a language
of its own. (A glossary of basic geography terms
appears in the
back of this booklet.)
Expose children to lots of maps and let
them see you using
them. Get a good atlas as well as a dictionary.
Atlases help us
ask, and answer, questions about places and their
relationships
with other areas. Many States have atlases that
are generally
available through an agency of the state government.
The activities suggested in this booklet
are only a few
examples of the many ways that children learn
geography. These
activities are designed to help parents find ways
to include
geographic thinking in their children's early
experiences. We
hope they will stimulate your thinking and that
you will
develop many more activities on your own.
References
Backler, Alan; and Stoltman, Joseph. "The
Nature of Geographic
Literacy." ERIC Digest (no. 35). Bloomington,
IN. 1986.
Blaga, Jeffrey J.; and others. Geographic Review
of Our World:
A Daily Five-Minute Geography Program for Grades
3-11. GROW
Publications. Racine, WI. 1987.
Duea, Joan; and others. Maps and Globes: An
Instructional Unit
for Elementary Grades. University of Northern
Iowa. Cedar
Falls, IA. 1985.
Geographic Education National Implementation
Project. Walter G.
Kernball (chair). K-6 Geography: Themes, Key Ideas,
and
Learning Opportunities. National Council for Geographic
Education.
Western Illinois University. Macomb, IL. 1984.
Department of Education and Science. Geography
from 5 to 16.
HMSO Books. London. 1986.
Hoehn, Ann. "Helping Children Get Their
Hands on Geography"
(unpublished activity guide). Milaca Public Schools.
Milaca,
MN. 1988.
Joint Committee on Geographic Education. Guidelines
for
Geographic Education, Elementary and Secondary
Schools.
Association of American Geographers and National
Council for
Geographic Education. Washington, DC. 1984.
National Council for the Social Studies. Strengthening
Geography in the Social Studies, Bulletin 81.
Salvatore J.
Natoli (editor). Washington, DC. 1988.
National Geographic Society. Geography: An
International
Gallup Survey. The Gallup Organization, Inc. Princeton,
NJ. 1988.
National Geographic Society. "Geography:
Making Sense of
Where We Are." Geographic Education Program.
Washington, DC.
1988.
National Geographic Society. Geography Education
Program.
"Teaching Geography: A Model for Action."
Washington, DC.
1988.
Wilson-Jones, Ruth Anne. "Geography and
Young Children: Help
Give them the World" (unpublished paper).
LaGrange, GA. 1988.
Glossary
altitude
Distance above sea level.
atlas
A bound collection of maps.
archipelago
A group of islands or a sea studded with
islands.
bay
A wide area of water extending into land
from a sea or
lake.
boundaries
Lines indicating the limits of countries,
States, or other
political jurisdictions.
canal
A man-made watercourse designed to carry
goods or water.
canyon
A large but narrow gorge with steep sides.
cape (or point)
A piece of land extending into water.
cartographer
A person who draws or makes maps or charts.
continent
One of the large, continuous areas of
the Earth into which
the land surface is divided.
degree
A unit of angular measure. A circle is
divided into 360
degrees, represented by the symbol *. Degrees,
when applied to
the roughly spherical shape of the Earth for geographic
and
cartographic purposes, are each divided into 60
minutes,
represented by the symbol '.
delta
The fan-shaped area at the mouth, or lower
end, of a
river, formed by eroded material that has been
carried
downstream and dropped in quantities larger than
can be carried
off by tides or currents.
desert
A land area so dry that little or no plant
life can
survive.
elevation
The altitude of an object, such as a celestial
body, above
the horizon; or the raising of a portion of the
Earth's crust
relative to its surroundings, as in a mountain
range.
equator
An imaginary circle around the Earth halfway
between the
North Pole and the South Pole; the largest circumference
of the
Earth.
glacier
A large body of ice that moves slowly
down a mountainside
from highlands toward sea level.
gulf
A large arm of an ocean or sea extending
into a land mass.
hemisphere
Half of the Earth, usually conceived as
resulting from the
division of the globe into two equal parts, north
and south or
east and west.
ice shelf
A thick mass of ice extending from a polar
shore. The
seaward edge is afloat and sometimes extends hundreds
of miles
out to sea.
international date line
An imaginary line of longitude generally
180° east or west
of the prime meridian. The date becomes one day
earlier to the
east of the line.
island
An area of land, smaller than a continent,
completely
surrounded by water.
isthmus
A narrow strip of land located between
two bodies of
water, connecting two larger land areas.
lagoon
A shallow area of water separated from
the ocean by a
sandbank or by a strip of low land.
lake
A body of fresh or salt water entirely
surrounded by land.
latitude
The angular distance north or south of
the equator,
measured in degrees.
legend
A listing which contains symbols and other
information
about a map.
longitude
The angular distance east or west of the
prime meridian,
measured in degrees.
mountain
A high point of land rising steeply above
its
surroundings.
oasis
A spot in a desert made fertile by water.
ocean
The salt water surrounding the great land
masses, and
divided by the land masses into several distinct
portions, each
of which is called an ocean.
peak
The highest point of a mountain.
peninsula
A piece of land extending into the sea
almost surrounded
by water.
plain
A large area of land, either level or
gently rolling,
usually at low elevation.
plateau (or tableland)
An elevated area of mostly level land,
sometimes
containing deep canyons.
physical feature
A land shape formed by nature.
population
The number of people inhabiting a place.
prime meridian
An imaginary line running from north to
south through
Greenwich, England, used as the reference point
for longitude.
range (or mountain range) A group or chain of
high elevations.
reef
A chain of rocks, often coral, lying near
the water
surface.
reservoir
A man-made lake where water is kept for
future use.
river
A stream, larger than a creek, generally
flowing to
another stream, a lake, or to the ocean.
scale
The relationship of the length between
two points as shown
on a map and the distance between the same two
points on the
Earth.
sea level
The ocean surface; the mean level between
high and low
tides.
strait
A narrow body of water connecting two
larger bodies of
water.
swamp
A tract of permanently saturated low land,
usually
overgrown with vegetation. (A marsh is temporarily
or
periodically saturated.)
topography
The physical features of a place; or the
study and
depiction of physical features, including terrain
relief.
valley
A relatively long, narrow land area lying
between two
areas of higher elevation, often containing a
stream.
volcano
A vent in the Earth's crust caused by
molten rock coming
to the surface and being ejected, sometimes violently.
waterfall
A sudden drop of a stream from a high
level to a much
lower level.
Glossary, in part, courtesy of Hammond,
Incorporated
Free or Inexpensive Materials
Maps
The following places often provide free
maps, although you
will probably have to go in person or send a self-addressed
stamped envelope in order to receive one:
* State tourist agencies and local chambers
of commerce
publish walking tour maps or guidebooks to
area
attractions.
* Local government offices, especially those
dealing with
public transportation, often provide free
road maps.
* Car rental companies. The Federal Government
has hundreds
of maps available. For a comprehensive listing,
contact
the Government Printing Office (GPO) bookstore
in your
area or the Superintendent of Documents,
Government
Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402. The
GPO handles the
printing and sales of items produced by government
agencies. Some examples of what you might
find there, or
directly through the developing agency, include:
* Schematic maps with historical data and
park activities of
the areas under the care of the U.S. National
Park
Service. Contact the particular site, or
write to the
Department of the Interior, U.S. National
Park Service,
P.O. Box 7427, Washington, DC 20013-7127.
* Maps from the U.S. Geological Survey,
the civilian
mapmaking agency of the United States Government,
covering
a range of areas including National Wildlife
Refuges to
LANDSAT pictures of the Earth. For a catalog,
write to the
Earth Science Information Center, U.S. Geological
Survey,
507 National Center, Reston, VA 22092.
* A map of the United States showing the U.S.
Wildlife
Refuges. Write to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service,
Division of Refuge, 18th and C Streets NW,
Washington, DC
20204.
* Maps of water recreation areas, from the
Army Corps of
Engineers. Write to Department of the Army,
Corps of
Engineers, 2803 52nd Avenue, Hyattsville,
MD 20781-1102.
* A wide selection of material is available
from the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA), 400
Maryland Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20546.
Of particular
interest are NASA Facts--Planet Earth Through
the Eyes of
LANDSAT 4 and Earth System Science. For a
full list, ask
for a copy of NASA Educational Publications.
Another source is The Map Catalog (Joel
Makower, editor,
and Laura Bergheim, associate editor), published
in 1986
by Vintage Books of Random House. It is probably
at your
public library.
Magazines
Look for these magazines in your school or
library:
* Discover produced by Family Media, Incorporated;
* World, published by the National Geographic
Society; and
* Ranger Rick and Your Big Backyard, published
by the
National Wildlife Federation.
Pen Pal
Organizations
League of Friendship
P.O. Box 509
Mt. Vernon, OH 43050
(6 14)392-3 166
Books
Easy Reading and Picture Books:
Anderson, Lonzo. Day the Hurricane Happened.
Story of what a
family does when a hurricane rips through their
island.
Bach, Alice. Most Delicious Camping Trip Ever.
Exploits of twin
bears on a camping trip.
Balet, Jan. Fence, A Mexican Tale. Illustrations
help tell the
story of two Mexican families.
Beskow, Elsa. Children of the Forest. A family
of Tomten (small
forest people) work and play through the four
seasons in their
Nordic home.
Brenner, Barbara. Barto Takes the Subway. Barto
lives in New
York City. He and his sister take a trip on the
subway.
Brenner, Barbara. Wagon Wheels. Three young
black brothers
follow a map to their father's homestead on the
Western plains.
Brinckloe, Julie. Gordon Goes Camping. When
Gordon decides to
go camping, his friend Marvin tells him of all
the things he
will need for the trip.
Buck, Pearl S. Chinese Children Next Door.
A mother who had
spent her childhood in China tells her children
about her
neighbors there.
Burningham, John. Seasons. A series of pictures
that define the
four seasons.
Burton, Virginia Lee. Little House. A country
house is unhappy
when the city with all its houses and traffic
grows up around
it.
Chonz, Selina. Bell for Ursli. A boy who lives
in a tiny
village in the mountains of Switzerland has an
adventure when
the spring festival comes.
Cooney, Barbara. Miss Rumphius. One woman's
personal odyssey
through life to fulfill her grandfather's wish
that she make
the world more beautiful.
Devlin, Wende and Harry. Cranberry Thanksgiving;
Cranberry
Christmas; Cranberry Mystery. A series of mystery-adventure
tales set on the cranberry bog shore of Cape Cod.
Dobrin, Arnold. Josephine's Imagination; A
Tale of Haiti. Story
of a young girl and her adventures in the Haitian
market.
Eiseman, Alberta. Candido. Paco, a Peruvian
boy, loves his pet
llama but knows that he must find a way to train
the animal to
work as other llamas do.
Ets, Marie Hall. Gilberto and the Wind. A very
little boy from
Mexico finds that the wind is his playmate.
Feelings, Muriel L. Jambo Means Hello. A Swahili
alphabet book.
Frasconi, Antonio. See and Say, Guarda e Parla,
Mira y Habla,
Regard et Parle. A picture book that gives words
from four
languages and prints each in a special color.
Has a page of
everyday expressions as well.
Garelic, May. Down to the Beach. Boats, birds,
shells, sand,
waves, tides and all the fun and wonder of the
beach are
pictured in simple, rhythmic prose and beautiful
watercolors.
Goble, Paul. The Gift of the Sacred Dog and
The Girl Who Loved
Wild Horses. These stories, accompanied by beautiful
pictures,
are based on legends of the Native Americans.
Green, Norma B. Hole in the Dike. Retells the
familiar story of
the young Dutch boy whose resourcefulness, courage
and finger
save his country from being destroyed by the sea.
Hader, Berta. Reindeer Trail. The generous
Laplanders bring
their herds of reindeer all the way from Lapland
to Alaska to
help hungry Eskimos.
Hoban, Tana. Over, Under & Through, and
Other Spatial Concepts.
A picture book on spatial concepts.
Holling, Holling C. Paddle-to-the-Sea. Describes
the journey of
a toy canoe from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic
Ocean.
Kessler, Ethel. Big Red Bus. An illustrated
bus ride for the
very beginning reader.
Krasilovsky, Phyllis. The First Tulips in Holland.
Beautiful
drawings about spring in Holland.
Kraus, Robert. Gondolier of Venice. The city
of Venice is
sinking into the sea, but Gregory, a proud gondolier,
gets a
clever and unusual idea to help the old city.
Lamont, Bette. Island Time. A parent and child
board the ferry
that takes them to their very special island on
Puget Sound.
Lisowski, Gabriel. How Tevye Became a Milkman.
Short tale, with
illustrations of the Ukrainian countryside, based
on the
character also depicted in Fiddler on the Roof.
McCloskey, Robert. Blueberries for Sal. Make
Way for Ducklings.
One Morning in Maine. Favorites from an award
winning
children's book author. Each describes a special
journey and
the difficulties in getting from one place to
another.
Mizumura, Kazue. If I Built a Village. An idealistic
picture of
what a village, town and city can be ends with
a small boy
building with blocks.
Morrow, Suzanne Stark. Inatuk's Friend. Story
of an Eskimo
child who must move from one place to another.
Musgrove, Margaret. Ashanti to Zulu: African
Traditions. Read
and observe 26 African tribes from A to Z.
Peterson, Hans. Big Snowstorm. Illustrations
and text picture
events on a Swedish farm during a raging, January
blizzard.
Rockwell, Anne. Thruway. As a small boy rides
along a thruway
with his mother, he tells of all the things he
sees.
Shortall, Leonard. Peter in Grand Central Station.
Peter takes
his first trip alone, but when he gets to New
York, his uncle
is not there to meet him.
Skorpen, Liesel Moak. We Were Tired of Living
in a House. Four
small children pack their bags and leave home
to find a new and
better house.
Spier, Peter. People. Explores the enormous
diversity of the
world's population. Looks at various cultures,
homes, foods,
games, clothing, faces, and religions.
Van Woerkom, Dorothy. Abu Ali: Three Tales
of the Middle East.
Abu Ali is fooled by his friends, tricks them
in turn and even
fools himself in three humorous stories of trickery
based on
folklore of the Middle East.
Books to Read Aloud or for Better Readers:
Brink, Carol Ryrie. Caddie Woodlawn. These
stories convey the
flavor of pioneer life through the eyes of a little
girl who
lived in Wisconsin a century ago.
Bulla, Clyde Robert. A Lion to Guard Us. This
is a story of the
founding fathers of the Jamestown colony and the
families they
left behind in England.
DeJong, Meindert. Wheel on the School. Children
of Shora, a
Netherlands village, are determined to bring storks
back to
their town.
Dodge, Mary Mapes. Hans Brinker, or The Silver
Skates. Poor
Dutch children long to compete in a skating contest.
DuBois, William Pene. The Twenty-one Balloons.
In the fall of
1883, Professor William Waterbury Sherman sets
forth from San
Francisco on a balloon expedition around the world.
Hansen, Judith. Seashells in My Pocket: A Child's
Guide to
Exploring the Atlantic Coast from Maine to North
Carolina. A
look at seashells on Atlantic Coast beaches.
Henry, Marguerite. Misty of Chincoteague. A
story of the wild
ponies that live on an island off the eastern
shore of
Virginia, and of one freedom-loving pony.
Kelly, Eric. The Trumpeter of Krakow. Mystery
story centering
around an attack on the ancient city of Krakow
in medieval
Poland.
Milne. A.A. The House at Pooh Corner; Winnie-the-Pooh.
Christopher Robin and his friends have adventures
and tell
stories.
Mowat, Farley. Owls in the family. This is
a story of the
author's boyhood on the Saskatchewan prairie,
raising dogs,
gophers, rats, snakes, pigeons, and owls.
McNulty, Faith. Hurricane. This is a nature
story that takes
place when a family struggles against a hurricane.
Spyri, Johanna. Heidi. Story of a young girl
who goes to live
with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps. She is
then taken by
her aunt to live in the city and struggles to
return to her
grandfather.
Steig, William. Abel's Island. A mouse lives
for a year in the
wilderness until his wit and courage take him
back home.
Wilder, Laura Ingalls. The Little House series.
Documents the
life of the author and her husband a century ago.
Wyss, Johann. Swiss Family Robinson. The adventures
of a Swiss
family shipwrecked on a desert island.
Atlases and other reference guides for young
people:
Big Blue Marble Atlas. Paula Brown and Robert
Garrison. Ideals
Publishing group. Milwaukee. 1988.
Discovering Maps: A Young Person's Atlas. Hammond
Incorporated. Maplewood, N.J. 1989.
Doubleday Children's Atlas. Jane Oliver, editor.
Doubleday. New
York. 1987.
Facts on File Children's Atlas. David and Jill
Wright. Facts on
File Publications. New York. 1987.
Life Through the Ages. Giovanni Caselli. Grossett
and Dunlop.
New York. 1987.
Picture Atlas of Our World. National Geographic
Society.
Washington, D.C. 1979.
Picture Encyclopedia of the World for Children.
Bryon Williams
and Lynn Williamson. Simon and Schuster. New York.
1984.
Rand McNally Children's Atlas of the World.
Bruce Ogilvie. Rand
McNally and Co., Inc. Chicago. 1985.
Rand McNally Student's World Atlas. Rand McNally
and Co.
Chicago. 1988.
Usborne Book of World Geography. Jenny Tyler,
Lisa Watts, Carol
Bowyer, Roma Trundle and Annabel Warrender. Usborne
Publishing,
Ltd. London. 1984.
Acknowledgments
This project could not have been completed
if it were not
for the help of many dedicated people. Thanks
to those who
shared their ideas and materials on geography
and early
childhood--Mark Bockenhauer of the National Geographic
Society,
teachers Ann Hoehn, Judy Ludovise, and Ruth Anne
Wilson-Jones,
and Salvatore Natoli of the National Council for
the Social
Studies. Thanks to the same group for reviewing
the final
document and to Pat Bonner of the Consumer Information
Center,
Robert Burch and technical staff of Hammond, Incorporated,
and
George Zech of the Duncan Oklahoma Schools.
Thanks to the National Mapping Division
of the United
States Geological Survey for becoming involved
in the
development of this document and for making it
available to a
broader audience. In addition, thanks to Ann Chaparos
for the
cover design and help on the layout.
Last, but not least, thanks to the staff
of the Office of
Educational Research and Improvement for helping
make
the draft into a booklet--Cynthia Dorfman, Kate
Dorrell, Lance
Ferderer, Mark Travaglini, Tim Burr, and Phil
Carr.
City maps, time zone map, and mileage
chart courtesy of
Hammond Incorporated, Maplewood, NJ.
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