Primary Type: Lesson Plan
Status: Published
This is a resource from CPALMS (www.cpalms.org) where all educators go for bright ideas!
Resource ID#: 47985
Rocking through the Regions (of the United States)
Rocking through the Regions (of the United States) is a 27-day third grade research project on the five regions of the United States and the states
that are located within the regions. Students will begin by writing letters to states" Departments of Tourism requesting information about their state.
Then, students will work in groups to use the information received along with other print and digital resources they locate to gather information
about their region. Once all information is gathered, students will begin writing an informative report and publish their report in an engaging
presentation. By the end of this unit, students will be able to identify all five regions on a blank map of the United States and label all 50 states.
Subject(s): Social Studies, English Language Arts
Grade Level(s): 3
Intended Audience: Educators
Suggested Technology: Computer for Presenter,
Computers for Students, Internet Connection,
Overhead Projector, Microsoft Office
Instructional Time: 27 Hour(s)
Resource supports reading in content area: Yes
Freely Available: Yes
Keywords: research, text features, project, states, US regions, PowerPoint, informational text, presentation
Resource Collection: CPALMS Lesson Plan Development Initiative
ATTACHMENTS
US Regions Foldable.docx
I have...who has states and regions.docx
US Regions Checklist.docx
US Regions Report Sample Graphic Organizer.docx
US Regions Rubric.docx
LESSON CONTENT
Lesson Plan Template: General Lesson Plan
Learning Objectives: What should students know and be able to do as a result of this lesson?
Students will use text features when reading informational text about their assigned state to help determine important information.
Students will gather and organize information from print and digital sources when conducting their state research project.
Students will write an informative report based on the research they collected.
Students will edit their writing for proper capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.
Students will use technology to publish their writing in an engaging way in order to present to the class.
Students will use a clear speaking voice when presenting their state project to the class.
Students will identify the five regions of the United States and label the states in each of the regions.
Prior Knowledge: What prior knowledge should students have for this lesson?
Students should have prior knowledge writing short letters with appropriate heading, greeting, body, closing, and signature. If students do not have experience writing
letters, it is recommended that the teacher read aloud Sincerely Yours by Nancy Loewen to introduce the concept.
Students should have experience writing informative reports before beginning this lesson. If your students do not have this background knowledge, take some time
page 1 of 6 before beginning this lesson to introduce how to conduct a research report by discussing how to access digital sources appropriate for the topic, how to determine
important information, and how to put all the important information together into one cohesive report. It might also be a good idea to have students conduct a miniresearch project in groups to get a feel for the whole process.
Students should know how to use text features to gather information about the five different regions of the United States.(ex- headings, subheadings, illustrations,
captions).
Students should know how to take notes and paraphrase information.
Guiding Questions: What are the guiding questions for this lesson?
How do text features help us identify important information?
How can we distinguish between important and unimportant information in a text?
What resources are available when collecting information for a research project?
How can we organize information we've gathered?
How can we use information collected to write an informative report?
How can we improve our writing?
What are important elements when presenting information to others?
Why is it important to learn about our country?
Teaching Phase: How will the teacher present the concept or skill to students?
Recommended 2 weeks before the main lesson (Allow 3 days for task)
1. Put students into 5 groups (one for each region-west, southwest, midwest, northeast, southeast).
2. Tell students in each group that they are responsible for writing a letter to the Department of Tourism for each of the states in their region (these can be teacher
provided or have students find the list of states in each region either online or in a book) requesting information about their state. Students can either work together
to make one letter and then change it slightly for each state or the states can be split up between the students in the group and each student would be responsible
for writing their own letter.
3. Review the parts of a letter with the students (heading, greeting, body, closing, and signature). Teacher may want to make an anchor chart using chart paper to
show students where each of these items should go in their letter so they have a visual to refer to during the writing process.
4. As students/groups are finishing the rough drafts of their letters, meet to discuss the contents of the letter. Work with students to include all the necessary details,
including an address to send the requested material to. Also, make sure students work to edit their letters for proper capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.
5. Allow students who are finished revising to either write their letter neatly by hand or type in a word processing program to print out.
6. Mail the letters to the appropriate Department of Tourism and wait for responses to start coming in! Click here for the addresses to the Departments of Tourism.
Day 1
1. Give students the formative assessment: students answer what a state is, list as many states as they know, and try to name the five regions of the United States.
2. Engage students and get them excited for the lesson by playing the Tour the States music video.
3. Pull up a USA Blank Map on your computer and projector and have students come up to the board and label as many of the states as possible based on the video. If
you have an interactive whiteboard, take a snapshot of this work to refer back to throughout the lesson. If you do not have an interactive whiteboard, it is
recommended that you take a picture of this work with a camera or a phone and upload it on to your computer so you can still refer back to it throughout this
lesson.
Day 2
1. Show students the US Regions Video so students can get an idea of what is located within their region. This will engage students and get them more excited to
research this region and may even activate prior knowledge for students who have traveled to some of the places shown in the video.
2. Explain to students that their task for the next week is to collect information on their region and the states in their region using a variety of print and digital
resources. As they are reading the material, remind students to use the text features to help identify important information and allow students to easily find
answers to the questions they have about their region.
3. Provide students with the US Regions Checklist. This explains everything that they are expected to do during this research project. Go over the research sections of
the checklist with the students. This will allow students to know what they need to find and record as they gather information during the week. As students find this
information, they check off that it was completed on the checklist and fill in the blanks of the checklist to ensure they found the information and have it easily
accessible.
4. Ask students if they have any questions before they are dismissed to conduct their research.
Day 7
1. Once students are finished with the gathering information part of this research project, bring them back together as a class and direct their attention back to the US
Regions Checklist.
2. Ensure that all groups completed the research portion of the checklist and took appropriate notes on another paper.
3. Go over the writing informative report section of the checklist. Students will complete each task listed, check off the tasks as they are completed, and fill in the
blanks provided just as they did on the research section.
4. Ask students if they have any questions before they are dismissed to work in groups to write.
Day 12
1. As groups begin to finish up their final drafts of their informative report, bring them back together as a class.
2. Explain to students that the next step after writing the final draft is to create an engaging presentation of the information they had gathered using technology.
3. Refer students back to the US Regions Checklist and go over the technology publishing section of the checklist with students.
4. Ask students if they have any questions before they are dismissed back to their groups.
Day 16
1. Students should be done with their publishing with technology, so bring them back together as a whole class.
2. Refer students back to the US Regions Checklist and go over the presentation section and the listening/note taking section of the checklist with students.
3. Pass out US Regions Foldable to students. Have them fold the paper on the solid vertical line. Then have students cut the foldable on the four horizontal lines below
the US region names.
4. Reinforce to students that while other groups are presenting, it is their job to take notes on the US Regions Foldable.
page 2 of 6 5. Ask students if they have any questions.
6. Ask for one group to volunteer to present their region (if no one volunteers, the teacher will choose a group).
7. As the group presents, students will be taking notes in their foldable. The teacher will be assessing the group's presentation on the US Regions Rubric (which is
aligned to match the US Regions Checklist) and also assessing students' listening/note taking behaviors on the US Regions Rubric.
Day 17
1. Ask for a second group to volunteer to present their region (if no one volunteers, the teacher will choose a group).
2. As the group presents, students will continue taking notes in their foldable. The teacher will be assessing the group's presentation of the US Regions Rubric and
also assessing students' listening/note taking behaviors on the US Regions Rubric.
Day 18
1. Ask for a third group to volunteer to present their region (if no one volunteers, the teacher will choose a group).
2. As the group presents, students will continue taking notes in their foldable. The teacher will be assessing the group's presentation of the US Regions Rubric and
also assessing students' listening/note taking behaviors on the US Regions Rubric.
Day 19
1. Ask for a fourth group to volunteer to present their region (if no one volunteers, the teacher will choose a group).
2. As the group presents, students will continue taking notes in their foldable. The teacher will be assessing the group's presentation of the US Regions Rubric and
also assessing students' listening/note taking behaviors on the US Regions Rubric.
Day 20
1. Have the last group present their region.
2. As the group presents, students will continue taking notes in their foldable. The teacher will be assessing the group's presentation of the US Regions Rubric and
also assessing students' listening/note taking behaviors on the US Regions Rubric.
Guided Practice: What activities or exercises will the students complete with teacher guidance?
Guided Practice Days 2-6
1. Dismiss students to their groups to come up with a plan to find the necessary information. Depending on the resources available in your classroom, you may want to
have centers with different resources that the groups can rotate through daily (textbook, picture books, computer, library). Another option would be to have the
students in each group split up and have one student per group at each center.
2. Allow students to continue researching their regions, taking notes, and completing their checklists for 1 hour a day for 5 days in order to allow them to have a
chance exploring each type of resource provided. (You can adjust the amount of time you give students for researching based on the resources you have and how
adept your students are at locating information).
Day 7
1. Dismiss students to their groups to come up with a plan to write the informative report.
2. Have students complete a graphic organizer for the description text structure Click here for an example of this type of graphic organizer.
3. Once groups are finished with their graphic organizer, call them back to meet with you. Discuss how the students plan to proceed with their writing. (The students
can work together as a whole group or can split up the work into paragraphs where everyone writes the introduction, but then splits up to do the detail paragraphs,
and then comes back together to write the conclusion.).
4. Allow students to begin their writing in whatever way the group decided during their meeting with you.
Days 8-9
1. Have students continue writing their informative report based on their graphic organizer.
2. Once the group is done with their rough draft, encourage students to use their resources to check spelling of words they are unsure of.
3. Next the group should bring the report to the teacher, so he/she can give feedback to students in order to help them with the editing process. The teacher should
give feedback on capitalization, punctuation, spelling, format of report, and details used (asking students to provide their checklist to make sure everything needed
has been included).
4. After students have met with the teacher, they should discuss and make the necessary edits as a group.
Days 10-11
1. After all edits have been discussed, students should work together to write their final draft. If computers are available, it is recommended that students type their
informative report.
Days 12-15
1. Students will work in their groups to create a presentation of their information using technology (PowerPoint, prezi, Mimio, etc). Students should ensure that they
are following the checklist and including all necessary information in their presentation.
2. When students have finished their technology publication of their work, they should discuss how they are going to work as a group to present the information to
their classmates.
3. Students can practice their presentation as a group if time allows.
Day 16
1. After the first group presents, refer students back to the US Blank Map. Tell students to color in all the states in the region discussed blue.
2. After students have colored the states, label the states together.
3. Have students cut out the colored region of states and glue it to a piece of paper (could be a Social Studies notebook) where it would fall in the whole United States
map.
Day 17
1. After the second group presents, refer students back to the US Blank Map. Tell students to color in all the states in the region discussed red.
2. After students have colored the states, label the states together.
3. Have students cut out the colored region of states and glue it to the same piece of paper students glued the region from Day 16 where it would fall in the whole
United States map.
Day 18
1. After the third group presents, refer students back to the US Blank Map. Tell students to color in all the states in the region discussed green.
page 3 of 6 2. After students have colored the states, label the states together.
3. Have students cut out the colored region of states and glue it to the same piece of paper used on Days 16 and 17 where it would fall in the whole United States
map.
Day 19
1. After the fourth group presents, refer students back to the US Blank Map. Tell students to color in all the states in the region discussed yellow.
2. After students have colored the states, label the states together.
3. Have students cut out the colored region of states and glue it to the same piece of paper used on Days 16-18 where it would fall in the whole United States map.
Day 20
1. After the last group presents, refer students back to the US Blank Map. Tell students to color in all the states in the region discussed orange.
2. After students have colored the states, label the states together.
3. Have students cut out the colored region of states and glue it to the same piece of paper used on Days 16-19 where it would fall in the whole United States map.
4. Students should now have the whole United States map colored, labeled, and glued on to one piece of paper with just a little bit of space between the different
regions.
Day 22
1. Pass out the "I have, who has" states and regions cards. Since there are 50 states, students will have to have more than 1 card.
2. Allow students to take a few minutes to locate their states' locations on the blank US map so they can determine what region the state is in and what states are
surrounding their state.
3. Begin the game with the student who has the "I have...Wisconsin" game card.
4. Continue through the game until it comes back to the student with the "I have...Wisconsin" game card.
5. Depending on time, you can replay the game by collecting the cards and dealing them out again.
Independent Practice: What activities or exercises will students complete to reinforce the concepts and skills developed in the
lesson?
Day 21
1. Provide each student with a copy of the US Blank Map (it is recommended that these are laminated so they can be reused for different practice activities).
2. Provide each student with 5 different colors of Playdoh.
3. Have students take the 5 different colors of Playdoh and color code the different regions by spreading the Playdoh across the map to cover the particular region.
4. When students are done, have them turn to their partner and discuss their solutions.
5. If students have any disagreements/concerns with their partners, the teacher will lead students into a discussion and can refer them back to their color coded map
they have worked on for the last 5 days.
6. Have students clean up the Playdoh. The teacher will collect it.
7. Have students pair up again.
8. Pass out a dry erase marker to each pair of students.
9. Pairs of students will take turns quizzing each other using the laminated map. The first student will point to a random state and the other student will name it and
record the name of the state on the laminated map.
10. Students will take turns swapping roles until all states have been identified.
11. After all states have been labeled, have students trace the boundaries for each of the five regions and name the regions.
12. Replay the Tour the States music video from Day 1 so students can check their answers. The team who got the most states labeled correctly wins! It's the teacher's
discretion as to what the pair of students wins.
Day 23
1. Summative Assessment: Provide students with a USA Blank Map and have students divide between the five different regions and label the states inside each region.
Closure: How will the teacher assist students in organizing the knowledge gained in the lesson?
Day 24
1. Replay the Tour the States music video from Day 1 so students can check their answers. The team who got the most states labeled correctly wins! It's the teacher's
discretion as to what the pair of students wins.
2. Have 5 locations around the room, each labeled with a name of one of the regions.
3. Ask students which region of the United States they know the most about.
4. Have them go to the appropriate location in the room for the region they chose.
5. Once in the appropriate location, students should discuss some facts they know about the region.
6. Then ask students which region they know the least about.
7. Have them go to the appropriate location in the room for the region they chose.
8. Once in the appropriate location, students should discuss some facts they know about the region and how they might be able to learn more about that region.
9. Finally ask students which region they like the most.
10. Have them go to the appropriate location in the room for the region they chose.
11. Once in the appropriate location, students should discuss why it is their favorite using facts they have learned about in class.
12. Have students go back to their seats and pull out a sticky note or small sheet of paper.
13. Have students write an exit ticket on the sticky note or small sheet of paper, listing 3 facts that they have found interesting during this process and 1 sentence about
their favorite part of this research project.
Summative Assessment
The research project on a region of the United States and the presentation of the research project to the class will be the summative assessment for this lesson. The
teacher will grade the project based on the US Regions Rubric.
The teacher will also provide students with a USA Blank Map (follow link and then click USA Blank Map on the left hand side) and have students divide between the five
different regions and label the states inside each region.
Formative Assessment
For step 7 in the teaching phase (after the letter to states' Department of Tourism), the teacher will give students a pre-test. Pass out a piece of paper to each
student. On the paper, ask students to tell what a state is. Under this definition, challenge students to write as many state names on their piece of paper as possible.
page 4 of 6 Then ask students to name the five regions of the United States on the bottom (or back side) of the paper. Alternatively, the teacher could provide each student with a
blank map of the United States and ask students to label the different regions of the United States and label as many states as they know on the map.
The teacher will collect this paper to view it and determine students' prior knowledge. This will determine how much time needs to be spent explaining what a state is
and what the regions of the United States are. If students already have the basic understanding of what a state is, the teacher can skip the first introductory
geography lesson.
Feedback to Students
The first part of the teaching phase is recommended to be completed 2 weeks before the main lesson,. The teacher will meet with region groups when they have
finished their rough draft letters to provide feedback and make editing suggestions.
During Days 2-6 in Guided Practice, the teacher will provide feedback to students as they are working in groups to locate information. Feedback can include reminding
students to refer to their checklist to get all the necessary information or guiding students towards finding informative resources.
During Days 7-15 in Guided Practice, the teacher will be walking around as students are working in groups, ensuring everyone in the groups is on task and give
feedback on the task students are working on.
For Days 16-20 in Guided Practice after the group presentations, the teacher will be walking around the room to ensure that students are coloring the correct states
the correct colors and cutting out the correct pieces. Give praise to students who are doing a good job following directions and guide students who seem to be having
problems.
During Independent Practice on Day 21, the teacher will be circulating the room, helping students who are experiencing difficulties.
ACCOMMODATIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS
Accommodations:
Grade appropriate reading materials
Students can read books together as a group or teacher can read aloud books to students at a very low reading level
Students can write together as a group or a student who is a struggling writer can dictate their thoughts to the teacher to type
Use of visuals (letter parts poster)
Checklist of expectations for students
Teacher can reduce the number of details required about the region or length of informative report based on students" needs.
Group work to build students" self-esteem
Use of immediate feedback
Extensions:
To go more in-depth in to research projects and the states, the teacher could have students choose a specific state and create a scrapbook page for the state with
important information gathered from print and digital sources. Once the students have completed their scrapbook page, the pages can be put into a scrapbook album
of the states. To get all of the states in the scrapbook, students will have to choose more than 1 state to make scrapbook pages on.
Suggested Technology: Computer for Presenter, Computers for Students, Internet Connection, Overhead Projector, Microsoft Office
Special Materials Needed:
Envelopes and stamps (to mail letters to the Department of Tourism for each state)
Chart paper (to make a poster to show the main parts of a letter)
Groups US Regions Checklist (1 per student)
US Regions Checklist (1 per student)
US Regions Rubric (1 per student)
US Regions Report Sample Graphic Organizer
Computers (for typing of letter and publishing of report)
Computer Publishing Program (PowerPoint, prezi.com, Mimio, etc.)
USA Blank Map (3 per student, 1 laminated, 2 not laminated---one for Days 16-20 Guided Practice and one for summative assessment)
"I have...Who has... Regions and States" game cards(lamination is recommended for future use)
Tour the States music video
US Regions song
Playdoh in 5 colors (enough for each student to have all colors)
Dry erase markers (1 per every 2 students)
US Regions Foldable (1 per student)
Suggested books for state/region research (look at your school or public library for a collection of books, 1 for each state)
Any Social Studies textbook you have in your classroom
America the Beautiful, Second Series by Ann Heinrichs (1 book per state)
The United States Books, Set of 50 states by Bernadine Bailey
The Everything Kids" States Book: Wind Your Way Across our Great Nation by Brian Thornton
The United States of America: A State-by-State Guide by Millie Miller and Cyndi Nelson
List of selected websites for state/region research
library.thinkquest.org/4552
http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/maps/united-states-regions/?ar_a=1%20
page 5 of 6 www.50states.com
www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/states
kids.usa.gov/learn-about-the-states/
Many more websites are listed on http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/pages/listthe50sju.html
Further Recommendations:
It is recommended that Steps 1-6 be completed a few weeks in advance of starting the rest of this lesson so that there is some time for the Department of Tourism of
each state to send you back information before students begin researching the states and regions.
It is recommended that the blank US maps used in Independent Practice Day 21 and Guided Practice Day 22 be laminated so they can be used for multiple purposes,
saving copies.
Also, it would be beneficial to print out the "I have...who has states and regions" games cards before Day 22 so they can be cut out and possibly laminated ahead of
time.
Depending on the ability levels of your students, they may need more or less time for each of the phases of this research project (research, writing, publishing), so
feel free to adjust the timeline to best fit your students" needs.
SOURCE AND ACCESS INFORMATION
Contributed by: Stephanie Sharrer
Name of Author/Source: Stephanie Sharrer
District/Organization of Contributor(s): Seminole
Is this Resource freely Available? Yes
Access Privileges: Public
License: CPALMS License - no distribution - non commercial
Related Standards
Name
LAFS.3.L.1.2:
LAFS.3.RI.2.5:
LAFS.3.RI.4.10:
LAFS.3.SL.2.4:
LAFS.3.W.1.2:
LAFS.3.W.2.6:
LAFS.3.W.3.7:
LAFS.3.W.3.8:
LAFS.3.W.4.10:
SS.3.G.2.3:
Description
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
a. Capitalize appropriate words in titles.
b. Use commas in addresses.
c. Use commas and quotation marks in dialogue.
d. Form and use possessives.
e. Use conventional spelling for high-frequency and other studied words and for adding suffixes to base words (e.g.,
sitting, smiled, cries, happiness).
f. Use spelling patterns and generalizations (e.g., word families, position-based spellings, syllable patterns, ending
rules, meaningful word parts) in writing words.
g. Consult reference materials, including beginning dictionaries, as needed to check and correct spellings.
Use text features and search tools (e.g., key words, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given
topic efficiently.
By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and
technical texts, at the high end of the grades 2–3 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details,
speaking clearly at an understandable pace.
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
a. Introduce a topic and group related information together; include illustrations when useful to aiding comprehension.
b. Develop the topic with facts, definitions, and details.
c. Use linking words and phrases (e.g., also, another, and, more, but) to connect ideas within categories of
information.
d. Provide a concluding statement or section.
With guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce and publish writing (using keyboarding skills) as well
as to interact and collaborate with others.
Conduct short research projects that build knowledge about a topic.
Recall information from experiences or gather information from print and digital sources; take brief notes on sources
and sort evidence into provided categories.
Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a
single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Label the states in each of the five regions of the United States.
page 6 of 6