ELEMENTARY EDUCATION PROGRAM

LESSON PLAN FORMAT

Intern: James Thompson

Grade Level: Second Grade

Title: Social Studies Lesson Plan 1: Mapping the World

Date: 12/13/2015
Objectives: Students will identify continents by location on a map and globe.
Essential Question: What is a continent and ocean and how are they
portrayed on maps?
I.

II.

K: Students will know the locations of features of the earth such as

oceans and continents and the equator in relation to a compass
rose.
U: Students will understand the differences between continents and
oceans by geographic locations to one another and how a map key
is used.
D: Students will create a world map to identify the continents,
oceans, equator of the earth and find the United States and Virginia
using a legend.
Standard VA SOL SS 2.5: The student will develop map skills by a)
locating the equator, the seven continents, and the five oceans on
maps and globes.
Materials for Learning Activities
Foldable paper for interactive notebook activity; physical globe
for assistance, and Smart board program.

III.
Procedures and Learning Activities
Time
Steps

Materials

Direct
Instruction

25 Minutes

Introduction:
One way to understand our world is by studying
maps that describe where we are on our planet in
relation to other places such as how far away is our
community, state or country from another
community, state or country.
To do this we need to know geography, a study of
the physical features of the earth and its
atmosphere and how people are effect by and effect
the earth.
For example, it tells us where we are in relation to
other larger or small geographic bodies such as
other communities, states, countries, continents, or
even planets. To know which is which, please stand
in the carpet, raise your arms outward as wide as
you can. This is planet, next, bring them a little
closer, this is the size of our body continent, bring
them a bit closer, this is the size of our body
country, a little closer again, this is the size of our
state, closer again, this is a community, once more,
this is us.
Do this again from big to small, planet, continent,
country, state, community, us.
These are all different examples of geographic
scales of physical places or things we associate with.
What we will identify in todays and tomorrows
lessons are the names and locations of continents
and oceans.
First: who can tell me what a continent is?
Students should express prior knowledge from first
grade that a continent is a large landmass that is
distinct from an island and continuous over a large
area.
How many continents do you remember that there
are? Who can name them? North America, South
America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and
Antarctica as well as an invisible dividing line known
as the equator.
To remember them, please stand up and we can sing
a continent song together. Later, you will have the
option of creating your own.

Smart Board
graphic

Our continent song will go like this. Repeat after

me. North America, South America, Europe, Asia,
Africa, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, Australia,
Antarctica.
Knowing directions, called compass rose directions is
also part of reading geographic maps. I will draw a
plus sign with arrows on the board. Can I have
volunteers come up and write for me what you
remember from your previous year what each
direction represents?
Students will write N, S, W, E for North, South, West,
East.
The compass rose is part of a key that tells us how
to read a map. The key consists of a legend, usually
a rectangle in a corner that has symbols with
matching descriptions that help us decode and read
the map for what those symbols are and where they
are represented on a map in different ways.
How do we know the difference between a continent
and an ocean on a black and white lined map? Lets
have a volunteer draw symbols to help us decode
the differences.
All of this information, from continents to oceans, is
put together on a map where a compass rose and
legend is used to identify directions or geographic
locations between two or more places and their
distances apart, as well as a map key that identifies
what it is that we are looking at, such as color
coding for land or ocean, mountains or symbols to
represent things.
For review of what students already know the
teacher should use a Smart board activity created
for the lesson.
Call students to use Smart board to point and
touch at projected map to identify given
geographic features.
Finding Continents: Ask questions to guide
students to locate continents on the Smart
board screen.
Find America the Continent. Europe: (Where do

some explorers come from? Asia: The continent

home to countries like China, Japan and South Korea.
Australia the island continent. Which looks almost
like a horned rhino and where is it? (Africa). The last
continent covered entirely in ice is located where
and is called what? (Antarctica).

Independent
Practice
30 minutes

What you will do now is apply the compass rose to

locating continents and oceans. Call volunteers to
board. Ask students to mark Virginia, tell them, this
is where we are in Virginia and in our current
community. Mark any other location on the same
continent or any other. Tell me the directions of
movement in straight lines only with compass rose
directions how we would move from Virginia to the
other place by compass rose relationships and draw
it on the board.
Instructional Strategies:
Next for more practice I will will pass out a world
map hand out for students to be instructed to color
in and label identifying continents and oceans from
word bank. When students they may have a choice
between extended activities.
When completed: Students may choose 1 of 3
centers.
Center 1: Social Studies foldable center activity:
Create foldable from planet to me identifying
student identity from planet to continent to country
to state to town/community to street to me for
future display. Students may not finish in remaining
time.
Center 2: Using technology. Students may use
http://sheppardsoftware.com/World_Continents.htm,
for further study of continents and oceans over their
preferred levels of difficulty starting with the tutorial
and moving to level 3. The activity allows for audio
and visual feedback for students to better identify
continents by correct spelling of root letters or by
memory of continent shape.
Center 3: Visualize Fairfax County or home
community and create a map with a legend and
compass illustrating places students feel important
to them in identifying their environment on the map.
Begin by drawing a basic shape of the state of
Virginia within where students think it is in the
United States.

1. Laptops
2. Centers
workshe
et and
foldable

10 minutes

IV.

Summary/Closure:
Students can share their finished foldable or
describe themselves from planet to me if not done.

Assessment
Students will be assessed by their matching skills to identify
continents, oceans and rivers by their geographic locations.
Teacher will ask students questions to understand how they identify
continents by size or shape and location? Questions will be asked
about whether knowledge of a compass rose was used in locating and
identifying continents and oceans.

Multiple intelligences in lesson:

Visual-Spatial intelligence is used in the act of manipulating the
smart board to move continent words to their geographicrepresented locations representing the definitions in where the
continent is located on the map.
o Intrapersonal knowledge is used as students think to
themselves examining their self-knowledge as they
relocate the vocabulary word to match is visual definition
on the map.

V.

Physical intelligence is used in a lesson warm up wherein

students exercise a large to small, part to whole activity by
standing up and outstretching their arms from a wide open space
representing planet and gradually reducing space between
arms to represent a physical difference between sizes from
planet to continent to country, state, county, community, street,
and self in a narrow distance between arms.

Differentiation

Tiered down - Students who have trouble reading the names of continents or
have special needs may access an alternative geography activity on the
Internet at http://sheppardsoftware.com/World_Continents.htm, available
through FCPS second grade resources for social studies activities. The
activity has four levels, tutorial, level 1 beginner, level 2 intermediate, level 3
expert. The tutorial is audio enabled allowing them to hear the
pronunciations as they work with the application to identify the continents.

Tiered up One activity on the

http://sheppardssoftware.com/World_Continents.htm program allows for
students to have their phonetic spelling challenged to a small degree. The
highest level of difficulty asks students to identify the highlighted continents
by the spelling of the first three letters of the continents. This can also help
special needs students sound out continent names.
In addition, for students who request to do another activity when they are
done with one center, they may as an option, create their own planet to me
activity where they can create their own planet and continents, a country
map, and imagined local community where, in using knowledge of map keys
they can use any colors aside from traditional blues and greens, and show
how the map key can help identify what is what in their imagined planet to
me activity going beyond a traditional map of Earth.
To reinforce the difference between stages of the larger and smaller
geographical bodies; planet, continent, state, community, students can be
reminded of how they have used their arms to physically remember how the
geographical entities are related in their general to specific associations by
expanding and shrinking space between hands and arms with each
component. A guiding question for students working on the foldable is to ask
students to think about how and where they live in relation to the larger and
more general locations starting with me and going to community, state,
country, continent, and planet. Students, who cannot remember the shapes
of the state, continent, and other continents on the planet can use a preexisting world map in their journals, and country map for guidance.
For assistance, students can use their geography maps that they have in
their Social Studies journals if they get stuck.
VI.

Technology Integration
Smart Board Integration with Notebook program for interactive touch
screen activity to identify continents and oceans.
Three laptops in the back of the classroom, as a computer station can
be used for the electronic World Continents identifying activity at
http://sheppardsoftware.com/World_Continents.htm.

VI.

Reflection