Geography: directions, maps, and communities (grade 1) · lesson

Left, right, near, far

Dog, house, cat

💡 Words like left, right, near, and far tell where things are.

Hold up your left hand. Your thumb and finger make an L. That is left.

Near means close. Far means a long way off.

It takes less time to get to a place that is near.

🧠 How to think about it

Find the house in the picture. Look to your left side of it. The dog is there. So the dog is left of the house.

left: the side your L hand is on
near: close by
far: a long way off

🏡 Try it at home

Play "Simon says" with left and right. Then name one place near your home and one place far away.

Land and water

Earth, water, and land

💡 Maps use blue for water, and water covers most of Earth.

On a map, blue means water. Green and brown mean land.

Look at a globe. Most of it is blue. Water covers most of Earth.

🧠 How to think about it

Look at the colors on a map. Blue parts are lakes and seas. The rest is land.

ocean: a very big body of salt water

🏡 Try it at home

Look at a map or globe together. Point to some water. Point to some land.

Your address

Street, city, state, country

💡 Your street is in a city, a state, and a country.

An address tells where you live. It goes from small to big.

Your street is in a city, like Denver. The city is in a state, like Colorado.

Colorado is a state in our country. Our country is the United States.

🧠 How to think about it

Start small. A street is small. A city holds many streets. A state holds many cities. A country holds many states.

address: the words that tell where you live
state: a big part of a country
country: a land with its own leaders

🏡 Try it at home

Help your child say their street, city, state, and country. Write it on an envelope together.

Things people made and things nature made

Nature made two, people made two

💡 Some places are made by nature, and some are built by people.

Nature makes mountains, rivers, islands, and volcanoes.

People build houses, schools, roads, and bus stops.

A map can show both kinds.

🧠 How to think about it

Ask: could a person build it? A school, yes. A mountain, no. So nature made the mountain.

nature: the world that people did not make

🏡 Try it at home

Go for a walk. Name three things nature made and three things people built.

Weather shapes a town

A snowy town and a sea town

💡 The weather and land in a place shape the jobs there.

Denver gets snow in winter. Many homes have snow shovels.

A town by the sea needs people who work on boats.

A cold town and a sea town are not the same. Each fits its place.

🧠 How to think about it

First look at the weather and land. Then ask: what would people there need? Snow means shovels. The sea means boats.

town: a place where people live and work

🏡 Try it at home

Name one thing in your home that you use because of your weather, like a coat, a fan, or a shovel.