THIRD GRADE: STRAND FIVE:

GEOGRAPHY CONCEPT FOUR:

HUMAN SYSTEMS
By: Tiffany Ollis
EED 465
November 13, 2015
Grand Canyon University

PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES 1 & 2:

PO 1 Standard: Describe changes over

time in transportation (e.g., animal,
boat, train, motorized vehicle,
aircraft).

Lewis, C. (2015). Getting around

through the years: How
transportation has changed in living
memory. Heinemann-Raintree.

This book is a great resource for

students because it gives them
plenty of information about the
changes transportation has gone
through over the years in a simple
format.

PO 2 Standard: Describe changes

over time in communication
networks (e.g., telegraph,
telephone, postal, internet)

The Federal Communications

Commissions (FCC) has a great
resource on their website that
provides information for students
about the history of communication
and the different types of
communication technologies.

http://
transition.fcc.gov/cgb/kidszone/histor
y.html

PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVE 3:

Standard: Recognize there are differences in political units and hierarchies (i.e.,
community, city, county, state, country, continent).

http://pbskids.org/democracy/my-government/

This is a great resource for students in third grade because it allows them to go on a
virtual tour of a fictional town to get a better understanding of what different jobs in the
local government look like and how these jobs affect them as students.

https://
jr.brainpop.com/socialstudies/government/localandstategovernments/preview.w
eml

This resource is one that you have to pay for a subscription for, but I have seen this in
my practicums and it is a very useful tool for getting students to understand bigger
concepts in their way. This one has a little information and questions to get them started
thinking and a video to go along with the topic.

This worksheet from Education.com is a great

little article for students to read and then
answer questions about the reading to
supplement their prior knowledge of the
differences between state and local
government. If I used this in the classroom, I
would probably have this be an activity to go
along with the other two links about the
workings of the government at different levels.

http://www.education.com/worksheet/articl
e/local-government
/

PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVE 4:

Standard: Describe elements of culture of a community or nation

(e.g., food, clothing, housing, sports, customs, beliefs) in areas
studied.

One resource that would be excellent for teaching third grade

about culture would be to have a virtual field trip to the Google
Cultural Institute because then students could ask their questions
to the experts and have the elements of cultured explained by
someone who studies that for a living.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+googleculturalinstitute/posts?e=PersonalizedSul

Another great resource for this performance objective is the book

History of Culture by Fiona MacDonald. It has some great
illustrations and lots of quality information in an easy to
understand package for kids.

Macdonald, F. (2003). History of culture. Broomall, PA: Mason Crest.

PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES 5 & 6:

PO 5 Standard: Discuss that Ancient

Civilizations have changed from past
to present.

It was difficult to find one resource

that gave students enough
information to understand how
Ancient Civilizations have changed
over the course of history, but there
were two resources that could work if
used together.

http://
www.oocities.org/teacherkab/countries/
egypt.htm
is a website that provides students with
information about present day Egypt,
while http://egypt.mrdonn.org/ has a
ton of information for kids on Ancient
Egypt. It would be great for students to
work in partners to discuss and record
the differences and innovations that
occurred as Egypt changed over time.

PO 6 Standard: Discuss the major economic

activities and land use (e.g., harvesting
natural resources, agricultural, industrial,
residential, commercial, recreational) of
areas studied.

Greene, C. (2013). I love our land. Berkeley

Heights, NJ: Enslow Elementary.

This book is perfect for a third grader to

understand agriculture and the economic
activities involved in land use. This would be
a good book for a read aloud and then a
class discussion afterward.

Another great resources for students to learn

about agriculture is the website BrainPop. It
has a page about Agricultural revolution
complete with a video and a little written
section about the topic with a few thoughtprovoking questions to get them thinking.

https://
www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/worldhistory
/agriculturalrevolution/preview.weml