FREE Geography Unit Study
OUR WORLD - FINDING OUR WAY

Geography is a way of seeing the world. It is fundamentally about the connections that exist between people, places, and the environment, and the ways in which these factors influence each other. 
This unit study is suppose to refresh the memory for students who have already studied these concepts in the past. It also serves as an introduction for younger siblings who will study these topics in details in coming years. As always we include a rich diversity of learning tools, free printables, audios, videos, note booking and scrap booking page ideas, art lessons and suggested links to paid programs that you may or may not have access. Hopefully our children can learn that our great big world gets smaller each day via technology. May they realize that the war and famine in one country isn't just a headline but something that should touch their heart. 

Art from the Heart II with Awesome Geography Inspired Art

Explore our Earth! 
Continents & Oceans

* Warm up: play Throw the Globe. Its an easy game of catch. Toss a beach ball sized inflatable globe. When you catch it and tell us what continent/ocean is your right hand on. 
Do you know anything about the location? Tell us! If not - see if you can find something on the globe (ocean or continent that you DO know something about! and tell us before you throw it to another player)

Teachers: Here is a very nice Printable Lesson plan to be used with this 
interactive tool that lets you hover over each continent to reveal the name. 
I HIGHLY recommend the Geography Jumpstarts. The free download (as of Aug 2013) has 2 game styles worksheets for each of the topics we have chosen to study. Great for 3rd - 6th grades. 


Activity: 
Continent video quiz great to see what you know before the lesson (take it again after to see how much NEW information you learned)

Today's Lesson:
Continents & Oceans
Brainpop Videos and Lesson Plans
there are several Brainpop Videos: this is a subscription program however this link will give you (the teacher) a suggested lesson plan even if you don't have access to the videos. 

Vocabulary:
atlas
compass rose
directions: north,south,east, west
cardinal
globe
northern hemisphere
southern hemisphere
Continent
Poles
Oceans



Add this note taking sheet to your journal write and illustrate. 
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Teachers: free printable lesson on teaching latitude is located at TeachersPayTeachers (registration required to download) 

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Finding our way: MAPS

Continents & Oceans

Continents & their animals

Continents & their Landforms

Continents & their Countries

sample from Ourworldwiseclassroom.com

What is your favorite animal? 
basic Animal Notebooking Page
simpler verison 
for younger children

If that download doesn't work: you could use these notebookingfairy.com pages
 Fill in these 2 notebooking pages Animal Page  and Country Page to add to your geography/history binder.

So looking for some pictures to share I discovered a FREE download from ConfessionsofaHomeschooler Erica created and who generously offers them for a free download of her animal printables from her Geography Study called Expedition Earth. 

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Cartography

Making Maps!
We created our own island.
Free Art Lesson

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More Research resources

• Geography4kids...lots of links for earth science too!
  
• Quality Kinder Lesson Plans to introduce Geography for the first time
  
• Free Printables for Countries, Famous People and Children Like Me (Homeschool creations)