Regions of the U.S.

We started out the year with learning about different regions of the U.S. This was a fun project students completed to learn about each region. It can be easily adopted to fit 4th grade when studying regions of a specific state. 

Here's my lesson plan:

TEKS:

Social Studies

5.7 Students understand the concept of regions in the United States (Geography)

5.8 Students understand the location and patterns of settlements and the geographic factors that influence where people live

Language Arts

5.20 Students understand the function of and use the conventions of academic language when speaking and writing. Students continue to apply earlier standards with greater complexity

5.22 Students spell correctly

5.26 Students organize and present their ideas and information according to the purpose of the research and their audience. Students are expected to synthesize the research into a written or an oral presentation

1. The teacher will introduce the concept of U.S regions through a KWL chart which will be followed by: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Kk_xtIVUQo (regions of the U.S. video)

  Imbedding language arts: First time, students will listen to facts

  Second time, students will listen to for adjectives used in the video. They will discuss with the group how these adjectives enhance the facts provided in the video.

  II. Students will be broken up into 5-7 groups (each group will be given information packet found in the drive with information on each region of the U.S.). More than 1 group can have the same region. Students will read their packet and take notes in their social studies notebooks. They will also make a list of at least 10 adjectives they found in the text as well as explain how these adjectives enhance the text.

III. Students will create a poster summarizing what they learned about each region (rubric in the drive). They will present their work and each group will take notes resulting in the class obtaining notes for each region.

IV. Students will take an open-notes quiz to show understanding of U.S. regions.

Here is my quiz . Students used their notes and posters around the room when they took the quiz. We practiced taking cornel notes together. 

Presentation rubric

Student work! (The best part )

These projects were so much fun and many of the students chose to do both a google slides presentations and a poster. They practiced presenting, took notes, and took ownership of their work!

Here's to a start of fun school year filled with project based learning.

-Always teaching, always learning

Mrs. Swanson <3