Distance Learning

The Five Themes of Geography and Weir Farm

Grade Level:
Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
Subject:
Social Studies

Program Description:

Using examples from Weir Farm National Historical Park, students are introduced to the five themes of geography (location, place, human-environment interaction, movement, and region). They then use this information to examine the five themes of a place of their choice.

Duration:

  • 45 minutes

Essential Question:

  • What are the five themes of geography?

Objective:

In this activity, students will understand the five themes of geography (location, place, human-environment interaction, movement, and region) with examples from Weir Farm National Historical Park.

Background:

Discussing the five themes is a useful way of teaching geography to students. The themes are location, place, human-environment interaction, movement, and region.

  • Location answers Where is it? Location can describe a site’s absolute location and relative location. Absolute location is the site’s exact spot on a map. It can be represented by latitude and longitude or a street address. Relative location describes a site with respect to the surrounding area. What is nearby? How far away is it from something else?
  • Place answers What makes this place special? Place describes the characteristics of a location. Physical characteristics include landforms like mountains, beaches, and rivers, as well as climate, plants, and animals. Human characteristics describe the people who live there (e.g., language, industry, religion, and culture).
  • Human-environment interaction answers How have people changed a place? Human-environment interaction describes how people depend on a place (e.g., plants for crops, rivers for fish/water), how people adapt to live in a place (e.g., clothing, shelter), and how people modify it (e.g., the building of dams, canals, and mines).
  • Movement answers How do people, objects, and ideas move through/to/from this place? Movement describes what is being moved and how it is being moved. Things being moved include humans (e.g., travel, tourism, immigration), goods (e.g., transportation by river, highway, airplane), and ideas (e.g., communicated by mail, telephone, internet).
  • Region answers How can this place be categorized? Region describes political boundaries and generalizations. It finds what the place has in common with other places around it. Examples include cities, states, countries, local industries, and regional nicknames (e.g., the Corn Belt, New York City’s Chinatown)

Materials:

Procedure:

Preparation:

Review the slideshow presentation. After the introduction of the five themes, one slide will list the questions applicable to that theme followed by a slide using Weir Farm National Historical Park to answer the questions.

Students should have some familiarity with the concept of longitude and latitude.

Encourage your students to create a mnemonic device to remember the five theme words (e.g., Lovely Paintings Have Many Rainbows, Light Painting Has Much Radiance).

Opening Activity:

Introduce the Five Themes of Geography: Location, Place, Human-Environment Interaction, Movement, and Region. Explain that you will be using a single site to demonstrate the five themes. There will be paintings and photographs from the site to illustrate the examples.

Developmental Activity:

Go through the Five Themes of Geography Using Weir Farm National Historical Park Slideshow with students. Have them fill out The Five Themes of Geography with Weir Farm Worksheet. Encourage group discussion among the students related to the questions posed in the Slideshow.

Optional Additional Activity:

Distribute The Five Themes of Geography Worksheet. Students should choose a site (not Weir Farm NHP). Recommendations include their home, your school, a large city, or a different National Park. The worksheet will require additional research and class time.

Assessment:

Review worksheet responses using the answer key.

Vocabulary:

  • Latitude – the distance on the earth’s surface between the equator (an imaginary line that runs east-west) and a point north or south
  • Longitude – the distance on the earth’s surface east or west of the Prime Meridian (an imaginary line that runs north-south)

Curriculum Standards:

Connecticut Social Studies Frameworks

  • INQ 3-5.3 Identify disciplinary concepts and ideas associated with a supporting question that are open to interpretation.
  • INQ 3-5.9 Use evidence to develop claims in response to compelling questions.
  • ECO 4.3 Identify examples of the variety of resources (human capital, physical capital, and natural resources) that are used to produce goods and services.
  • GEO 4.2 Use maps, satellite images, photographs, and other representations to explain relationships between the locations of places and regions and their environmental characteristics.
  • GEO 4.3 Explain how culture influences the way people modify and adapt to their environments.
  • GEO 4.7 Explain how human settlements and movements relate to the locations and use of various natural resources.

Last updated: February 16, 2024