Landforms
Level
N
Standards
People, Places, and
Environments
Students will build a basis for
creating geographic perspectives
on the world by identifying
characteristics of the different
landforms.
Mary Evans
Supports
• strong photo support
• many high-frequency words
Challenges
• concepts
Text features
Structure: compare/contrast
Organization: bolded words,
labels
Visual text: picture glossary
Language: bay, canyon, cliff,
desert, hills, island, mesa,
mountains, peninsula, plain,
valley, volcano
Introducing the text
• Read the title and the back-cover blurb. Identify and discuss the
landforms shown in the photo on the cover. List them on chart
paper. Establish that landform maps use color symbols to show
different kinds of land and water.
• Talk about landforms in your state and community and add them
to your list. Encourage children to think how they would define
and describe the different landforms.
The first reading
Title page:
Skim the title page.Add landforms seen here to
the list.
Pages 2–3:
Have children read silently before discussing what
the word natural means here. Identify the natural
landforms in the photograph.
Pages 4–5:
Point out that landforms are in bold print. Remind
children of definitions they talked about for other
landforms. Invite them to find the author’s definition
for bay and canyon. Guide children to read these
pages independently. Encourage children to reread
each page to identify its information. Introduce the
picture glossary on page 16. Compare the glossary
information with the definitions on each page.
Copyright 2004 Sundance and Newbridge®
Discovery Links Social Studies Fluent Teacher’s Guide
800411-01
Landforms
Pages 6–7:
Challenge children to find and share the definitions
of each landform. Read the labels on each
photograph. Ensure children understand their role.
Pages 8–11:
Continue to support children to read and
understand these pages. Encourage them to read the
labels to see how they confirm and often extend
the information in the running text.
Pages 12–15:
Continue supporting group members to use
effective strategies to comprehend the text. Use the
glossary to define bolded words.
Page 16:
Discuss the different landforms shown on the map.
Use the picture glossary to aid discussion.
Provide time for children to review the book before inviting them
each to choose two pages to read independently. Observe and
support strategies for maintaining meaning and forward movement.
Do they use known words and parts of words to solve unfamiliar
words?
Rereading and discussing
• Encourage discussion and inferential thinking.Ask children what
they liked and what they learned from the text and photographs.
• Ask children each to select a page to read to a buddy.
• Invite children to consider other ways of communicating the
information and explore this with several pages. Discuss whether
or not a chart or web would convey the information effectively
and why.
Reading and writing social studies
• Have each child make up a riddle describing a landform.
• Have them write their riddle on one side of an index card, and the
answer on the other side. Children can then read and try to solve
each other’s riddles.
• Use the following as a model for children to follow:
Front:
I can be hot or cold. I am always dry. It almost
never rains on me.What am I?
Back:
A desert
Home/school connections
• Provide each child with a small amount of clay and a list of
landforms. Encourage children to work together with a family
member to build a model of one landform in the list. Have
children bring in their models to share with the class.
• Invite children to take home the activity sheet from the
home/school connections book to do in collaboration with their
families.
800411-01
Discovery Links Social Studies Fluent Teacher’s Guide
Copyright 2004 Sundance and Newbridge®